


The Ties That Bind Us

by LittleRoseDragon



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Building bonds, Multiverse, Post-Undertale Pacifist Route
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-15
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:08:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 55,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21804949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleRoseDragon/pseuds/LittleRoseDragon
Summary: Who knew that giving back a guy's wallet could be so complicated?A chance encounter with a skeleton turns Emma's life upside down.
Comments: 14
Kudos: 52





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first attempt at writing down one of my stories. I'm dyslexic so this is hard to do, but I've had a lot of help from the people around me to get this out. I hope you enjoy it.

  


It all started with an act of kindness, who knew it would change her whole world.

  
  
  


Emma had only meant to go out for some groceries she had forgotten. But by the time she reached the market and picked up the bits she wanted, the last thing she desired was to go straight back home and face all the problems awaiting her in that big old empty house.

So instead Emma walked to the nearby open-air market and sat down on a bench at the edge of the square under a nice shaded tree. She reached into her bag, took out her sketchbook and started to draw, and that’s when she saw him.

  


The guy in question was about 8 feet tall, wearing a light brown long sleeve top, faded blue denim jeans and bright red half-boots with what looked like golden buckles for fastenings. He also had on matching red gloves and a scarf. The scarf looked pretty worn, unlike the rest of his clothing, “ _ which probably meant it was something special to him, much like my hat and necklaces are to me” _ Emma thought to herself as she tried to get a good likeness of him. The said item of clothing was wrapped tightly around his neck and pulled up so that the front of it hid the lower half of his face, while the rest of it billowed out behind him caught in the early summer breeze.

  


Now that Emma looked more closely at the scarf she could see how the end of it was torn and frayed with a few small holes in it. But this was not what had drawn her attention in the first place. No, it was the fact that he was a skeleton, well, a skeleton monster to be more precise.

  


Now the fact that he was a monster was nothing new. They had appeared several years ago from Mt Ebott. Emma still remembered that day. It was a day very much like today. She had been out doing some odd errands. When all of a sudden there was a blinding flash of white light and the ground shook so violently that most people had fallen over, Emma included. As people started to pick themselves up off the floor, word started to spread of creatures coming out of the mountain. By the time she got home, it was official monsters were real and here!

  


Over the next few years, more monsters had emerged from the mountains around Ebott and slowly assimilated themselves into society as a whole. So now, in general, they are an accepted part of everyday life with the same rights as everyone else.

  


Emma smiled to herself as she continued to watch people go about their day.” _They certainly_ _bring more colour into the world_ ” she thought. Sighing as she closed her sketchbook, and put it away.”I guess I should start home soon,” she murmured to herself as she took one last look around the market. Emma spotted the skeleton was also leaving the area. Just as he reached the edge of the market his wallet fell out of his pocket. No one seemed to have noticed this so Emma quickly headed across the market picking it up and chasing after him in hopes of catching up with the guy before he got too far away.

  


She momentarily lost sight of the skeleton as he rounded a corner. Emma groaned as she tried to run faster. She had never been very good at running or sport in general and it would be a real pain to have to try and find the police station to hand the wallet into.

  


Praying that she hadn’t lost him, Emma ran as quickly as she could “damn... really need to exercise more” she wheezed as she rounded the corner, to be greeted by the sight of said skeleton talking to a group of humans.

  


The group consisted of five males. All of them were pretty average in appearance, build and height. Three of them had brunette hair, one was black with dreadlocks and the last one had bleached blond hair and a tattoo on his right shoulder. The skeleton was right in the middle of them bending down slightly to talk with dreadlocks.

  


Emma slowed down to catch her breath before approaching them. One of the brunettes pulled a bat from somewhere and hit the unfortunate monster on the back of his skull, knocking him to the ground. The others took this as their cue to start pounding the living daylights out of him. Things seem to slow down and speed up at the same time as she shoved the wallet into her bag and pulled out her phone.

  


It seemed to take forever to get through to the police, but it was actually a few minutes, and that was all the time needed to inform them of the assault, their location, a description of the men involved, ending it with a “please hurry”. Because at the same time the condition of the skeleton was rapidly getting worse.

  


Small clouds of dust were beginning to form with each new blow. Now with a monster, this was never a good sign, their bodies mainly consisted of magic with just a bit of what was generally known as dust, which stopped monsters being creatures of pure energy, giving them some physical form. This was one of the major differences between the two races, humans having completely physical bodies and no magic as far as anyone knew. Another difference and the most important one at the moment was what happened to them when they die. With a human, the body would remain the same. Monsters, on the other hand, would disintegrate when they die, leaving nothing behind but a little bit of dust.

  


“ _ So the fact that the skeleton was giving off dust meant he was getting close to death. _ ” This was about the only thought running through Emma’s head, that and: “ _ not again I’m not watching someone else die  _ “ as she desperately tried to think of something, anything that she could do to stop this.

  


It probably should be mentioned that Emma is on the small size at about 5 feet tall, quite slim but probably could do with losing some weight, not very strong and as hinted at earlier not very athletic. So picking a fight with five grown men would be suicidal and that really wouldn’t help anyone. 

  


Luckily or unluckily for our girl fate decided to take a hand in things. For at the precise moment she was thinking of throwing her shopping at them in a desperate attempt to distract them. The guy with bleached blond hair spotted her and decided it would be fun to drag her into the middle of it all. “Looky here boys we’ve got a little fangirl admiring our work.”

  


“Aaww how cute do you like what you see girly?” With that, the men moved back so now she had a clear view of the skeleton. “Go on take a good look at our masterpiece.” 

  


Emma couldn’t have told you which one was saying what, for her eyes and most of her attention was caught by the horrific sight before her. The skeleton’s body was barely holding itself together. He had slightly curled in on himself in an instinctive attempt to protect himself from further damage. From Emma’s vantage point she could see that one of his legs was broken it was hard to tell which one from this angle, but she could clearly see the bone sticking out of his jeans. She could also see that his right arm was broken, the hand on that side was completely shattered and slowly turning to dust, which was trickling out of his glove. Also, his ribcage on the left-hand side was completely caved in, so his breathing was now coming in shallow ragged gasps that rattled what was left of his tall frame. 

  


Lastly, it was quite hard to even see his face because the skeleton was using his one good arm to protect his head, and what she could see was covered in a spider web of cracks with a few small pieces missing. His skull was proportioned differently from a human one. Being more elongated with a long narrow jaw that was fused to the rest of his skull.

  


The only thing that could be seen clearly was one eye socket. There was no eye in the socket just a faint light in the centre of the pitch blackness. The light seemed to be fading in and out, one moment bright and clear, the next moment it was barely visible like the pitiful creature was struggling to stay conscious.

  


But for one moment the eye-light was sharp, focussed and looking directly at Emma. The look in that light would stay with her for the rest of her life. The pain and fear was to be expected, but the understanding and acceptance, with a trace of sorrow at what was happening to him that was surprising. 

  


Then the moment was gone as something heavy was thrust into her hands, instinctively Emma gripped it. Looking down she saw the bat was now in her hands.”Go on girly I know you’re itching to add to it.”

  


“Yeah go for it kid.”

  


Looking at the sea of leering faces in front of her, she knew that there was only one thing she could do, and oh boy was she going to regret it. Steeling her resolve, Emma raised the bat and with all of her strength she swung it up between dreadlocks’ legs, causing him to double over in pain. She went to swing it again but was quickly disarmed by one of the men, while someone else punched her in the stomach. Then one of them grabbed her from behind.

  


“Hold the bitch still” dreadlocks growled as he staggered to his feet “I’m gonna show her what we do to monster lovers here.” With that, he drew a knife and grabbed Emma’s hair forcing her to look at him.

  


She struggled in vain as the knife came closer and closer to her face. She closed her eyes, not wanting to see what happens next. Then there was a searing pain across her left cheek, followed by dampness as blood started to run down her face.

  


“Better a monster lover than an intolerant bastard like you” Emma grated out from between clenched teeth.

  


“Why you little bitch” this was followed by another searing pain across her chest. The lightweight summer top she was wearing offering little to no protection from the knife as he continues to stab and cut her.

  


Emma’s world became a confusing mess of pain and sound. At some point, she found herself on the ground next to the skeleton. Weakly she tried to curl herself around him so at least one of them might survive. “ _ I’m going to protect you. You are going to live, you’re going to be alright I promise you. _ ” This was the last coherent thought, Emma had as she started to lose consciousness, at the same time a gentle warmth started to spread from her chest dulling the pain. The last thing she heard before the darkness claims her is sirens. The police have finally shown up.


	2. Chapter 2

Emma found herself in a strange place. Everything was fuzzy and out of focus. All she got was a vague impression of white with dark shapes in the distance, and the dark rich red of fresh blood. Above it all was the sense of terrible hunger, longing, sorrow and bitter cold that numbed you to all else.

These impressions began to fade and peter out as she slowly regained consciousness, to find herself in a hospital room. Every part of her body hurt, she had the worst headache in the world and there did not seem to be any place she could put her head that did not make it ache worse. The rest of her body was not in much better shape, it felt heavy and stiff. It was like she had run a marathon and then done a full work out. The only thing that did not hurt was her eyeballs. It also meant it took three attempts to sit up and that was with some choice language. Having finally managed this feat, Emma took stock of her immediate surroundings and herself. 

The room was a typical hospital room white, sterile, and empty. All it had in it was a hospital bed, a chair, one of those tables that swing over the bed, a bedside cabinet and an uninspiring view of more hospital buildings from the only window. 

She could not see any of her belongings. Her hat, bag and clothes, god even her necklace was gone. All she had on was one of those backless hospital gowns. The strange thing was that although she clearly remembered being stabbed multiple times she was not wearing any bandages.

“Okay, just how long was I out for?” She murmured to herself as she checked out her chest. 

She was equipped with the standard electronics to monitor her vitals, but her chest also had a myriad of silvery slashes across it. These marks were not the silvery-white of deep scar tissue, no they had a metallic sheen to them, so as they caught the light they glittered. It was like someone had spilt silver paint all over her torso.

As Emma was trying to get her stiff fingers to move the bedsheet, so she could check the rest of her body, the door to the room opened to reveal a middle-aged female nurse with black hair tied back into a bun. “Oh my, your awake, do you need some help?”

“Um yeah, a couple of questions; how long was I out? Did the skeleton make it? Where is my stuff? And can I have a painkiller, please? My head feels like I’ve got a whole chorus line tap dancing in it.”

The nurse smiled as she altered the bed to better support Emma’s body and started to check her vitals. “That’s a lot of questions there. I only started work a little while ago. You’re my first stop of the day, so I don’t know about anyone else brought in with you. If he was a monster they most likely took him to the clinic across town. We’re not really equipped to deal with them here. As for your other questions, anything brought in with you should be in the bedside cabinet. As for the other bit, let me just check the notes here, though I might have to get a doctor to authorise giving you anything. It depends on what your notes say.” With that, she took a tablet from the trolley she had brought in with her and started to look up Emma’s notes.

As the nurse did this, Emma’s mind started to wander. “I guess it makes sense to send him there, I’m most likely in Ebott General Hospital, but how I ended up in a room, not on one of the public wards, I still have no idea.”

The clinic the nurse was going on about was part of a place called The Centre which was built and run by monsters. It was as a place they could go get any help they needed in adjusting to life on the surface and because monsters bodies were different to human ones it made sense to have a medical facility in it.

Emma was brought out of her musings by the nurse’s voice. “Here we go. You were brought in at 11 o’clock this morning, it’s now 4 o’clock so you’ve been out for six hours” she said looking down at her watch. “There is also a note saying that when you wake up I’m meant to inform the doctors, so someone should be along shortly to talk with you. They will be able to prescribe any medication you need. Also, they will be able to answer any other questions you may have far better than me.” 

Emma did her best to stifle the groan that wanted to come out. Nothing good ever came from doctors wanting to talk with you in her experience. "Okay thank you. " It was at that moment her stomach decided to remind everyone in the room that she hadn’t had anything to eat since 7 o'clock that morning. "Err... Sorry about that… Um could I get something to eat, I haven't had anything since breakfast, please?" Emma could feel the blush creeping up over her face as she spoke. 

"I'll see what I can do... Miss?"

"Oh, err... its Emma, Emma Lynas"

"Okay, how do you spell that last name please?"

"Um L.Y.N.A.S."

"Right, and it is Miss?"

"Yes"

"Okay, that's your medical file corrected and updated Miss Lynas. I will leave you to rest now, I will pass this information on to the medical staff, and I'll see what I can do about some food for you." With that, the nurse finished putting the information on her tablet, tidied up her trolley and left the room followed by one last "thank you" from Emma. 

Sighing, Emma leaned back into the pillow, closing her eyes she tried to get her aching head to work. "Okay, let's try to think this through. She said I was out for six hours, I remember being attacked, there is no way I recovered that fast. Something seriously weird is going on. Either I'm still dreaming, ow...No hurts too much for that. The nurse got the time wrong, or... I don't know... It doesn’t make sense!” She said to herself as she looked down at the strange scars on her chest.

“Okay, hopefully, the docs can clear that one up. So what can I do if they keep me in? I'm going to have to call Steph to go check on and feed Shadow, she is the only one with a spare key. If they let me out, I’m either going to have to call a cab, or a friend, depending on how much of my clothes have survived. Either way, I'm going to need my phone. I just hope it didn't break and still has power. "

With those thoughts in mind, Emma once again tried to get up, only to be interrupted by someone else opening the door and entering the room. This time it was a youngish male with close-cropped chestnut hair, wearing a doctor's white coat, with casual slacks and a blue shirt. "Ah, good afternoon Miss Lynas, it's good to see you back with us again."

"Good afternoon... Doctor?"

"It's Doctor Layton."

"Could you please tell me what happened to me and how long I will be here for... please?" Emma could not help the slight plaintive note in her voice as she asked this. 

"Ah yes, a most unusual case, just let me check the notes." Looking up from his tablet, a faint smile played across his face. "You’re a very fortunate young lady. That was an extremely vicious assault you were involved in; you're lucky to be alive."

“Okay, so why don’t I look like a mummy at the moment?”

“Excuse me?”

“Why aren’t I covered in bandages?”

“Ah yes, that’s where your case takes an interesting turn. The paramedic team that responded to you had a Healer with them.”

“A Healer? Isn’t that what monsters call their Medics?”

“Yes, there was a Grade 2 Healer with them, to treat the monster at the scene. They also treated you. Quite frankly, if they hadn’t you would have bled out before reaching the hospital.”

“Okay, so I take it they used some form of healing magic on me, but what does the Grade 2 stand for, please?”

“Yes, as you know monsters regularly use magic in their everyday life. It’s in their food, their medication and there are even some who have the ability to affect the world around them. The grade indicates the type of magic they can use and how well they can wield it. In this case, the grade means that they had about the same level of skill as the paramedics that were there.”

“Alright, that makes sense. So where does that leave me?”

“You are one of the first, if not, the first person to ever be treated for such severe injuries with any form of magic. While their magic has definitely healed you, I am a little concerned with the colour of your scars. So we are running some tests just to make sure everything is alright.”

“Okay, so how long is it likely to take? It’s just that I've got a cat at home and no one to feed her.” Great, I’m getting nervous! She thought to herself as she tried to at least look calm. Emma tended to babble when she was nervous.

Dr Layton gave her a reassuring smile. “Not to worry. We did most of the necessary tests while you were unconscious. We are just waiting for the results. As long as there are no complications, I see no problems in releasing you today.”

“Alright so how long do you think it will be before the results are in please?”

“It should not be much longer, considering the unusual nature of your case we made your tests a priority.”

“Okay” Emma hoped this would not be a case of hospital time, where a short time could be anywhere up to a couple of days to hear anything back from the medical staff.

“Alright, while we wait let’s check how you are doing physically.” He said, putting down his tablet.

The physical did not take much time, the nurse having already checked her vitals, which were good according to the doctor. Emma also learned that while she had been out they had scanned her for internal injuries and broken bones, which luckily she didn’t have. Thank you magic! 

So aside from being stiff, sore and aching all over, Emma was basically okay. The Doctor finished off by checking her for concussion. “Good, you are doing just fine physically, there is nothing wrong with you that a few days of rest and some gentle exercise won’t fix. Now we are just waiting on the results of the blood tests to come back and that should be everything.”

As he gave Emma a shot for the pain he said: “Now try to get some rest, I’ll be back when we have the results.” With that, the doctor picked up his tablet, made some notes and left the room.

Emma sighed as she carefully removed a bit of tape and cotton wool from her arm, it was probably where they took her blood from earlier. God, she hated needles, she was so glad she had been out of it when it had been done. It was bad enough when the doctor gave her the shot. Looking down at her arm again Emma wondered if she could take that bit of tape off as well. 

Exhaling heavily she decided to leave it alone for now. Instead, she chose to try and get at her stuff again. This time she made it to the bedside cabinet before the nurse came back with some food.

Thanking the nurse again as she left the room, Emma put down the food on the table and pulled out the plastic bag with her belongings in it. Sitting down on the bed she quickly devoured the food and started going through the bag.

Inside the bag, Emma found her trousers, sandals, bag, hat and most importantly her necklace. Sighing in relief she quickly put it back on. The necklace was a simple thing, It consisted of a silver cross plus a ring on a long silver chain, but it meant the world to her.

Feeling so much better with it back on, either that or the pain medication had kicked in, Emma once again looked at the contents of the bag. There was only her underwear left, her top and bra were nowhere to be seen, which given the state of her chest was understandable. Next, she examined her hat.

It was a wide-brimmed black hat with a pair of bronze welder’s goggles over the hatband. One of the dark lenses was cracked and would need replacing. The cog brooch she had made was still intact on the left-hand side of the hatband. The same could not be said for the two pheasant feathers behind it. They were looking pretty beat up and would also need to be replaced. But most importantly, on the opposite side of the hat, still attached to the goggles was the little pin badge that once belonged to her dad. The rest of the hat could be replaced if necessary, but there was no way she could replace that pin.

As Emma put her hat down she noticed that there was some sort of white powder on it. Looking back at the rest of her stuff, it was also covered in the same white powder; that  
glittered faintly in the light. There were also some traces of blood on her bag and trousers. About the only thing without any marks on it was her underwear. She really hoped that it was just dirt and not dust. Anyway, everything was going to get washed when she got home, but to do that she needed to get home first and she still had not seen her phone. Okay, the hospital had public phones which she could call a taxi from, but without a top that would be awkward, to say the least. She might be able to use a hospital phone to call someone, but she couldn’t remember any of her friend’s numbers. The only number she could remember was her home phone and that wouldn’t help because the only one at home right now was her cat.

She just wished she could remember what had happened to her phone during the fight. Her trousers did not have any pockets and she had already emptied the plastic bag. That left her old college bag.

The bag was a big cloth satchel, it had once been a deep rich forest green but over the years it had faded down to a pale sage colour. Not that you really could see it, as it was almost completely covered in patches. Some were ones Emma had made depicting her favourite anime characters, the rest were ones she had found, or her family had given her over the years.

She rummaged through the contents of the bag. Emma was grateful to see that although her groceries were battered, her sketchbook had survived the ordeal without a scratch. Her purse and cards were still there, so a taxi was an option, however embarrassing it might be. Next, her hand came to rest on another wallet. For a moment Emma had trouble remembering whose wallet it was. Then she realised that she still had the skeleton’s wallet. 

Groaning she put it back in the bag. She would have to figure out how to get it back to him later. Right now she really wanted her phone, and finally her hand came to rest on it. Sometimes Emma really wished she could afford a smartphone, but it really wasn’t practical with the way her life was going at the moment. So instead she had the cheapest phone on the market, a £10 pay-as-you-go, with really crappy battery life and a bad habit of turning itself on in her bag. It also tended to die on her at the most inconvenient moments. So she was pleasantly surprised to find out, not only had her phone survived, but it still had enough power to call someone. Now, who to call? Most of her friends worked, or couldn’t drive. As she scrolled through the short list of her contacts, one name stood out, Patch.

With a silent prayer, she hit the call button and nervously waited for him to pick up. Emma always felt tense and uncertain when she tried to talk with someone on the phone. Whether she was trying to simply book a taxi, or arrange a get-together with her friends, it was always the same. Maybe it was because in general Emma tended to be shy and nervous when trying to talk to anyone. It was worse over the phone because it was harder to gauge their reaction.

Her train of thought was interrupted by someone answering the phone. “Hello”

“Hey Patch, it’s Emma.”

“Hey babe how are ya?” His voice as always sounded happy and relaxed.

“Not so good.”

“What’s up?” A note of concern entering his voice.

Emma tried to speak but found that her voice had gone. Her throat felt tight, also tears pricked at her eyes. All the stress from what had happened to her was finally catching up.

“Babe? Em, what's happened?”

With a great deal of effort, she forced herself to speak. “Sorry … just been having a really rough day, and could really use some help right now.”

“Alright babe, take your time. Where are you? And what can I do to help?”

“I think I’m in Ebott General… Sorry, I forgot to ask earlier. I don’t even know what ward I’m on.” She struggled to keep her voice steady as she talked.

“Okay, hun. It’s going to be alright, just take it slow, What happened?” Patch’s calming tones, as always, helped Emma to steady herself.

Taking a deep breath she continued “I was attacked… I woke up in the hospital… They are running some blood tests. Physically I’m fine, so if the tests come back okay they’ll let me go home… So if it’s not too much trouble could you come to pick me up please?”

“Of course babe. Be right there. If you get the chance to find out exactly where you are, text me, okay hun?”

“Yeah, thanks Patch.”

“Any time.”

“Um… Patch?”

“Yes Em.”

“... Could you bring a spare top with you? Mine kinda went M.I.A.”

“Of course Em. I’ll be there as soon as possible. Okay, hun?”

“Yes, thanks again Patch.” With that, the phone call ended.

Letting out a sigh of relief Emma put the phone down on the table, for once not turning it off to save the battery, just in case Patch needed to call her back. After putting on her few remaining clothes, she once more curled up on the bed. To pass the time she pulled out her sketchbook and started to doodle.

At some point in time, a member of staff came round for the empty tray of food. So Emma was able to get the information for Patch and pass it along. While waiting for either her friend or the doctor to show up, her mind started to wander as her hands continued to draw. It drifted to thoughts of the guy coming to get her.

They had known each other for years. Stephanie may have been Emma’s oldest and best friend. But Patch and his wife Jacqui were people she could always count on. 

They all shared the same hobby, it was how they met. Patch was a bear of a man at 6 foot. His head was shaved except for the top, where his thick ginger hair was normally tied back in a shoulder-length ponytail. His wife Jacqui was much shorter being closer to Emma in height, but still having a good few inches on her. She had dark blond shoulder-length hair. Neither of them looked or acted like the 60ish-year-olds they were. The only hint to their age was the fact that Jacqui walks with a stick and Patch’s Santa Claus style thick white beard.

Though the pair were old enough to be Emma’s parents they treated her like everyone else, not like a child. Some might find their friendship odd, especially since the pair were old bikers and Emma was still trying to get out of her old art student ways, but they were two of Emma’s closest friends.

Thinking about art she focussed back on what she had been drawing. To her surprise among her normal doodles of dragons, plants and such like, were some rather creepy images. Like a plate of spaghetti with an eyeball and a severed ear on it. There was another one of a commercial-style pot with a hand sticking out of it.

“Okay, so the attack affected me more than I thought. Let’s stop trying to avoid it and just get it out of my system.” And with that thought in mind, she started to draw all she could remember of the assault. From the condition of the skeleton, who she hoped had survived, to the appearance of their attackers.

Much like with buses where you wait for ages for one to show up, then all of a sudden three arrive at the same time. Everything seemed to happen all at once for our girl.

She was just putting the finishing touches to her drawings when her friends showed up. She just about managed to get the greetings (which involved a quick hug from the pair) over with, when Doctor Layton showed up with her test results. As he was about to speak he was interrupted by someone else knocking on the door before entering the room.

Not one, but two people appeared in the doorway. This new pair consisted of a fairly nondescript male police officer, who was dwarfed by the 7-foot tall monster standing next to him. The monster appeared to be a female humanoid fish with bright blue scales, sharp, yellow, piranha-like teeth, brilliant scarlet hair drawn back in a high ponytail and gills where her ears should be. She was also wearing a uniform similar to the police officer’s but with a few differences. The main one being that the badge over her chest was that of the monster royal family known as the Deltarune.

As her, one good eye (the left being covered by an eye patch) took in the room, it came to rest on Emma. An excited grin covered her face, the next thing anyone knew she had pinned Emma against the bed and was fixatedly staring down at her left cheek. “Wow never thought I’d see one… That’s so cool!”

The fish’s hand started to move towards Emma’s cheek when it was stopped by the police officer. “Captain Undyne would you please leave the young lady alone. We’re here to get a witness testimony, not to accost people!”

“Fu fu fu fu sorry kid. I can get carried away sometimes.” Undyne said, rubbing the back of her head. A much more sheepish grin now gracing her face as she backed up to her partner.

“Ahem, sorry about that, please let me introduce us properly.” Glaring at his partner who was still grinning unrepentantly. “This is Captain Undyne of the Royal Guard and I’m Lieutenant Rojers of the Ebott Police Force. We’re working this case jointly since it involves both species. We would like to get your account of what happened for the records please.”

Emma sat down on the edge of the bed. She was not surprised to find someone from the Royal Guard here. Though their main job, as the name suggested, was to guard the monster royal family, they also served as the police force for their race.

Looking at the captain, she fought the urge to get her sketchbook out and draw the cool looking creature in front of her. Instead, she asked. “Um… Okay before we get into that… Err Captain?”

“Undyne, kid.”

“Okay, Captin Undyne, what did you mean by ‘never thought to see one’ please?” 

“Oh, you mean the awesome dust scar. Heard old man Gerson talk about them, never thought I’d see one in real life.”

“Dust scar?”

“Yeah, Gerson said that you could sometimes see humans with them during the war.”

The war Undyne was referring to happened over a thousand years ago and had long since faded from human history. It was a war between the races, the war that humans had won. In the end, the humans had trapped the ill-fated surviving monsters under the mountains around Ebott, for all what was meant to be all-time, but as we know this was not the case.

Emma’s fingers ran across the silver scar on her cheek. Doctor Layton furrowed his brows. “Do you mean to say you know why my patient’s scars are that unusual colour?”

“Fu fu fu, yeah the kid just got some dust in her cuts. Not surprising considering she had been covered in the stuff. You’d think she’d killed the guy herself.”

“Oh god, he didn’t die… Did he?” A look of horror crossed Emma’s face.

“Oh no no no the gentleman is doing fine. Actually, he’s perfectly fine now, there isn’t even a mark left on him. Those healers of theirs do amazing work.” The lieutenant reassured her.

“That’s good, I’m so glad… So I’ve basically got the monster equivalent of a miners blue scar or a tattoo?”

“Yeah.” If Undyne's smile got any bigger her face would have split in half.

“Okay Miss, if that answers all your questions? Shall we begin the interview, so the good doctor can finish what he was doing?” 

“Yes thank you. So what do you want to know?”

“If you could tell us what you remember of the attack and the events that lead up to it please Miss?” Rojers asked as he drew a pad of paper and a pen out of the folder he was carrying and got ready to take notes.

Taking a deep breath to steady herself, Emma started to recount that day’s events. At some point during her tale, Jacqui sat down next to her taking one of her hands, while Patch moved to her other side placing his arm over her shoulder in a silent show of support. She finished by describing her attackers plus showing them the sketches she had done.

“Wow, those are awesome!”

“Yes. These could prove useful. Do you mind if we take them with us?”

“Err… I would rather not damage my sketchbook… but if you need them. Then… Okay.” Emma looked down at the book in her lap. It was an A4 hardback thing that her mother gave her for her last birthday. Taking the pages out would weaken it and most likely make it unusable, but she would do it if it meant those men would never hurt someone else again.

“That won’t be necessary, there is a photocopier in the nurses’ station. We can have those images copied for you in a few minutes. Now if that’s everything I would like to talk with my patient.” Said Doctor Layton from the corner of the room where he had been standing the whole time. Emma had quite forgotten he was still in the room.

“Yes, that would be helpful doctor. Now Miss, if you would just check and sign this statement for us that should be everything.” The lieutenant smiled as he handed over the pad and pen to Emma, taking the sketchbook in exchange. “Now, if the good doctor would show me to the nurse’s station we’ll get these copied and let you get back to your day.”

“Yes of course, if you will give me a few moments to finish my business with Miss Lynas I’ll gladly take you there.” Turning to Emma the doctor continued, “Your test results came back clear so you are free to go home. I recommend that you try to take it easy for the next couple of days to give your body time to recover. If you experience any lingering symptoms you should contact your G.P. immediately.” 

“Okay. Thank you” Emma could not describe how relieved those words made her. For aside from the fact she really didn’t want to spend the night in a hospital, her body and especially her scalp was starting to inch madly from the blood and dust that she was still coated in. God, she really wanted a bath. It wouldn’t just be her clothes that got a wash when she got home.

“Now lieutenant, if you would please follow me we’ll get the copies done.” With that, the pair left the room.

By the time Emma had finished checking the notes and signed at the bottom of the page, they were back. She and the lieutenant once more exchanged books. As the officers were about to leave, the doctor having already left, Emma remembered something. “Excuse me, officers are you going to see the skeleton again?”

“Yeah kid,” Undyne said as she turned around to look back into the room.

“Could you please give this back to him?” Pulling his wallet out of her bag. “It was why I was following him in the first place.”

“Fu fu fu sure punk.” Taking the wallet Undyne once again turned to leave the room. “Ya know, for a human, your something else.” With that, she was gone. Leaving Emma with her two friends.

Finally being able to take off the hospital gown, she put on the t-shirt Patch had brought. Turning around she noticed a look of sympathetic pain on Jacqui’s face at the sight of her scars. “Hey, it beats the alternative. It’s not like I wear a lot of low cut tops anyway.”

“Mmm…” Jacqui’s face still looked concerned.

“Come on at least they’re pretty.” Emma smiled trying to reassure her friend. “ What’s important is that I'm alive and he’s alive, if this is the price I have to pay for that, then fine, it’s not too bad. Come on let’s get out of here, I’ll buy you guys a takeaway as a thank you for coming to get me.”

“Oh no hun, if anybody is buying food here it’s me,” Patch told Emma as the trio left the room and started for the exit.

They were still arguing good-naturedly as they left the hospital and headed towards Patch’s van. None of them noticed the two sets of eyes that followed them as they got into the van and left the car park. Nor did they hear the growl as two dark shapes detached themselves from the shadows to follow after them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would really like to thank Allison for spell checking my work for me, and the rest of my friends for putting up with me going on endlessly about my story. Especially since none of them knows anything about undertale.


	3. Chapter 3

The next day Emma woke up still feeling a bit stiff and sore, but nowhere near as bad as yesterday. Once again her dreams were haunted by the faint images that she could not make sense out of. But the feelings of hunger, pain, fear and loneliness, plus that bitter cold, were stronger this time. To the point that she felt cold in her baking hot attic room.

As she got dressed for the day she thought about the odd dreams she was having. For you see, Emma rarely remembered her dreams and when she did they were usually the reverse of what she had last night. Normally there wasn’t any sound and she definitely did not feel anything. There was only one dream she could ever remember having any sound. It had been a strange little dream where she was trying to break a robot which was making a really annoying sound, only to wake up to find out it was her alarm clock going off.

“Well, at least I’m not having nightmares about the attack” she murmured to herself as she headed downstairs for breakfast.

After Emma had finished eating she spent the rest of the morning following the doctor’s advice and relaxed watching Netflix until it was midday when she had to leave for an appointment.

As she walked, she checked her bag to make sure she had everything. She needed her purse and cards so she could stop off at Muffet’s Bakery for a bite to eat after her appointment. The bakery was run by a spider monster who the place was named after. It had, as far as she was concerned, the best pastries in town. She was also one of the first monsters to own and run a business on the surface.

Her thoughts drifted to what sweet treats she would get later. She was so caught up in her thoughts that she was not aware of the two creatures that were following her until a deep gravelly baritone voice growled out. “Human, don’t you know how to greet a new friend? Turn around and shake my hand.”

Turning around Emma was greeted by a broad chest in a white t-shirt and blue jacket with thick grey fur around the hood. She had to look up to see his face. The guy had to be at least 6 feet tall. He was a skeleton. His skull was rounder than a human’s and there was a huge hole on the left side above the eye socket, which had a large crimson orb in it. The right socket was empty with some faint scratches and chips around the base and his mouth was stretched out in a jack-o-lantern style smile. He had one skeletal hand stretched out in greeting.

Slightly behind him and to the left was another skeleton who could have been his twin except for a few things. He was a few inches shorter for a start and instead of a t-shirt he was wearing a white polo shirt. His blue jacket had a grey hood with no fur and it was drawn up over his head. His skull seemed to be slightly fuller too. He had the same jack-o-lantern smile on his face, but the most startling difference was his eye lights. The right one was a deep crimson, while the left one was a light cyan with a bright red ring around it. Looking down a bit she noticed that the two skeletons were dressed identically in the same black shorts with a white line down both sides. They each wore matching white trainers, though the one at the back had not bothered to do up his shoelaces.

Hesitantly Emma extended her hand towards the skeleton. “H-hi”. 

God, she hated it when people came up to her like this. Given her shy nature, her stomach was trying to tie itself into knots. She just wanted to run away, but her parents had raised her with manners so instead, she asked. “Can I help you?”

“You can die, dirty little monster hater.” The skeleton growled as his hand closed around hers.

Crying out in pain Emma jerked her arm back freeing it from his grip. Looking down at her hand she was shocked to see a deep bloody gash in the palm. Cradling her injured arm against her body she backed away from the pair of skeletons, while desperately looking around for somebody, anybody, to help her, but there was no one there and no way to escape.

The only thing she could do was try to talk her way out of this. It had to be a mistake, she didn’t hate monsters. “I don’t …” The words died on her lips as she watched in horrified fascination. The first skeleton brought his bloody hand to his mouth revealing a wicked little knife that he had been concealing in his cupped hand. His teeth parted to reveal a long gelatinous blue tongue that seemed to glow with an inner light. With it, he started licking the blood from his fingers.

“Don’t lie, I can still smell his dust on you.” Came a deep powerful voice from behind her. 

Turning slightly, she found that the other skeleton had somehow gotten behind her. Then there was a terrible pressure in Emma’s chest, making it hard to breathe. The next thing she knew she was flying through the air until she smashed into a nearby wall. 

As she hit the floor she thought she heard someone call out “BROTHER WHAT ARE YOU D…” The rest of the sentence was lost as darkness once more reached out to claim her.

This time there were no dreams, just coming around to another pounding headache. Slowly sitting up Emma found herself lying on a couch in a rather pleasant sitting room. Her hat and bag were on a coffee table in front of her. There seemed to be voices coming from another room. As she swung her legs over the edge of the seat she knocked her right hand on the couch and felt a slight sting. Examining her hand she noticed that the deep gash from before was now a faint mark on her palm. “Well, I guess wherever I am they’ve got a healer. It’s a shame it doesn’t work on clothing.” Emma murmured quietly to herself as she checked out the blood and dirt on her top.

“Brother I Do Not Care What You Say… Oh, Miss, You’re Awake.” In the doorway stood the skeleton from the assault yesterday. But unlike last time she could now clearly see his whole face. It was remarkable, he looked perfectly fine, with no injuries, exactly the same as the first time she saw him. Except this time she could see that his teeth were all crooked and jagged.

A shocked silence filled the room as the two stared at each other. Both trying to think of something to say. Emma was the first to break the silence by blurting out the first thing to cross her mind. “I’m glad to see that you’re alright, did that officer give you your wallet back yet?”

“You’re kidding me. Ya glad he’s alright after you tried to kill him.” This came from the skeleton with a hole in his head, who had somehow gotten in front of the other one, even though he was still standing in the doorway with no way to get around him.

Huffing in exasperation the tall skeleton tried to move past the other one, only to be blocked again. “Brother Stop This At Once! How Many Times Do I Have To Tell You It Was MEN That Attacked Me! This Little Morsel Had Nothing To Do With It!”

“Oh come on bro you must smell the dust on her.”

“I’m Sure There Is….”

“I’m sorry Papyrus but I have to agree with Axe on this. We know one of them ended up in the hospital and she came out covered in the stuff.” Came a quiet voice from the other side of the room.

Turning, Emma was startled to see the skeleton with the two-tone eye lights was sprawled over a chair with a manic smile spread over his face. She was sure that he hadn’t been there before.

“Dust Please If We Just Give The Human A Chance To Explain Herself I Bet There Is A Good Reason For It.”

“Yeah, she attacked you,” Axe growled out as he tried to shake off his brothers restraining arm.

“Brother, Please Just Let Her Talk.” 

Three sets of eye lights turned to face Emma. Two sets promising pain and a slow death, if they didn’t like what they heard. The other set looked on expectantly with an encouraging smile on his face. 

Taking a deep breath and concentrating on the one skeleton that did not seem to want to kill her, she started to talk. “The reason I was covered in… I guess your dust, was because they attacked me too.”

“Yeah right.”

“Brother Please Let The Little Human Finish.”

“Thanks. Like I was saying they must have seen me calling the police, the next thing I knew they grabbed me and started pounding the living daylights out of me. I don’t really remember much else until I woke up in the hospital.”

The moment Emma finished speaking she found herself suddenly swept up into a tight skeletal embrace while being spun around the room and nuzzled by Papyrus. “OH, I KNEW IT. I JUST KNEW IT! YOU’RE THE ONE THAT SAVED ME NYEH EH EH EH EH.”

“I think the healer had more to do with it than me.”

“WE SHOULD CELEBRATE! I SHALL MAKE US A FEAST!” Just like her friend Stephanie the more excited Papyrus got, the louder he got and the less he seemed to listen.

Emma couldn’t help but smile a bit at the energetic skeleton’s antics. “Wait, what time is it? I would love to stay but… “

“THEN IT’S SETTLED. I SHALL GET STARTED RIGHT AWAY! BROTHER, PLEASE ENTERTAIN OUR GUEST.” Declared Papyrus.

“.... I have an appointment at 1.30 …. And you’re not listening to me... Okay, I guess I’m staying for lunch and phoning them up to rearrange my appointment.” Shaking her head ruefully as she watched Papyrus dash happily from the room. “At least he remembered to put me down first before running off like that.” She thought to herself as she reached for her bag and the cellphone therein. 

But it was not there. Frantically she searched through her belongings, hoping that it had just fallen loose somewhere in the bag. Everything else was still there, at least that meant she still had what she needed for the appointment, and money for a taxi, if, or hopefully when, the skeletons let her go.

Emma was not a fool she knew that she was completely at their mercy. She was alone in what had to be their house. No one knew she was here and her friends wouldn’t start worrying about her until she missed meeting up with them on Saturday. This being Tuesday that didn’t really help matters. Also, the fact that two out of the three monsters with her were openly hostile and had tried to kill her earlier, wasn’t exactly comforting either. But for some stupid reason, her brain had decided to treat this like any other visit with a friend. And to top it all off she still could not find her blasted phone. Oh God, maybe it had fallen out when she hit the wall. It wasn’t much of a phone but it was the only one she had.

“Lose something Girly?” Looking up Emma saw Axe holding her phone in one clawed hand.

“Yeah that! Can I please have it? I need to make a call.” Holding out her hand with a hesitant smile now gracing her face.

“Nope” crushing the phone like it was nothing and dusting off his hands “Do you think I’m stupid. You may have fooled my brother, but you don’t fool me.” Axe growled.

Dust moved next to him, his manic grin turning positively evil as his hand started to glow a vibrant purple colour. Emma suddenly found that she could not move a muscle and some invisible force was dragging her to her knees.

Summoning a sharpened bone, Axe knelt down next to her, pulling her head back and placing the tip of the bone against her neck. “Now you’re going to tell me what your game is.”

Emma was normally a sensible girl and would never antagonise someone who had a knife against her throat. But the stress of the last couple of days and the way her life was going in general, just made something inside her snap. So instead of feeling scared, like any sensible person, she ended up feeling just fed up and angry with the stubborn bag of bones in front of her. “Seriously, I needed that! What is your problem? I was just going to call Citizens Advice to change my appointment, if it’s not too late already, since your brother wants me to stay.” She said angrily. “Not that I have a problem with that, he seems to be a sweet guy and I’d like a chance to get to know him. But I’d also like to keep a roof over my head! What did you think I was going to do, call the police? And tell them what exactly? That a pair of insane skeletons attacked me, knocked me out and I’ve woken up in what I think is their home. Please could you use my crappy phone to find me?” She added sarcastically. “Yeah right! Lucky if the stupid thing has any battery, let alone connect to anything. God, it’s so basic I’m lucky it rings. It doesn’t even have internet access! So just how were they going to track me? What did you think I was going to do, hurt him? How do you think I got these scars in the first place? I got them because I WOULDN'T HURT HIM!!”

Whatever Axe had been expecting to hear, this was not it. Where was the screaming? The begging and the fear that made it so easy to tell if someone was lying without having to check them? Any monster could read, or as it was more commonly known among his people, ‘check’ a soul. With this ability, you could see into someone’s soul and depending on what magic you had, and how strong it was, you could learn things about a person. In Axe’s case, he could use it to see if someone was lying. But with this girl, he could not sense a thing, and stranger still, it seemed that she could feel him ‘checking’ her and it made her wince in pain. Not that he cared but humans had lost the ability to feel, or see, their souls when they lost the ability to use magic.

Growling in frustration, he tightened his grip on her hair, pulling her head back savagely making Emma cry out in pain. This girl was starting to piss him off and judging by the look in her hazel eyes the feeling was mutual.

Looking down at her pale skin he noticed the silver mark on her cheek. “Wait, that's a scar?” The bone disappeared as his hand reached out to touch it.

“Yes it’s a scar, I’m not that messy a painter,” Emma said as she tried in vain to move away from the skeletal hand now cupping her cheek.

“It’s silver,” Axe said as he started to twist her head from side to side to get a better look at the thing.

“It’s a dust scar.” Emma grated out from between clenched teeth, as Axe continued to wrench her head about. This was not the most comfortable sensation in the world.

Dust moved closer to get a better look, still keeping a tight grip on her with his magic. “Nope, not my work.”

“BROTHER, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” Papyrus asked as he poked his head back into the room.

“Evidently checking out my scar while forgetting about personal space.” Emma couldn’t help the sarcasm that entered her voice. As the other two finally let go of her and backed up, looking very much like a pair of naughty children caught by an adult.

“I HEARD YELLING” Papyrus stated as he gave the pair a suspicious look making them both squirm. It seemed they didn’t want to upset him.

Emma sighed. She was most likely going to regret helping them out, but she found she could not bring herself to hurt this sweet creature’s feeling or damage his world view. “Sorry, that was me... I kind of lost it when I found out my phone got broken earlier... Um, I don’t suppose you’ve got one I can borrow, please? I really need to make a call, if you want me to stay… You see I have or had, I really don’t know what the time is, an appointment at 1.30.”

“You Want To Leave Don’t You?” Papyrus sounded so hurt as he collapsed in on himself.

Sighing again, Emma walked over to the skeleton, ignoring the warning growl coming from Axe, and gently lifted his chin so they were looking at each other. Shaking her head as she smiled softly at him. “You’re not listening... I NEED this appointment but I DO want to get to know you. So I was going to try and rearrange it for another day. After all, you have already gotten under my skin.” She said as she absentmindedly touched the scar on her cheek.

Suddenly Papyrus threw his head back, raised his hands to the heavens and cried. “NOOOO!! I LEAVE YOU ALONE WITH MY BROTHER FOR ONLY A FEW MINUTES AND HE HAS ALREADY INFECTED YOU WITH HIS BAD SENSE OF HUMOUR!!!!”

Emma looked on in confusion. She could hear the muffled sound of laughter going on behind her, but could not understand what was so funny. It looked like she had done it again - made a pun when she was being serious. “Err no, I mean it literally, you’re under my skin.”

Now it was the turn of the skeletons to look confused. “What?”

“Um yeah, you’re the reason my scars are silver.” Gently running her fingers over the mark. Emma looked at the still confused skeletons. “Um, let's see if I can explain it... It’s kinda like when coal dust gets left in a wound giving the scar a blue tinge ….. Evidently, when this happens with monster dust, it turns the scar silver instead. So unless another monster came along and decided to rub their dust into my cuts, which I doubt, this is you.”

“So I’m Part Of You” an awed look filling Papyrus’ face.

“Yes, I guess you could say that.”

“And You Don’t Want To Leave? You Want To Be My Friend?”

“Yes, you silly sweettttt….” Once more Emma found herself being swept up in a bone-crushing hug by the energetic skeleton. “Pap-py-rus breathing is a necessary thing for humans, ease up a bit big guy.”

“Oh Sorry, Tiny Friend I Keep Forgetting How Fragile You Little Morsels Are.” Papyrus apologised as he gently put her back down.

“It’s alright, oh it’s Emma by the way.”

“NYEH?”

“My name is Emma, and you’re Papyrus right?”

“Oh, How Remiss Of Me. I Never Introduced Myself Or My Brothers.” Dust seemed to flinch when Papyrus said this. “Well, This Will Never Do. Proper Introductions Are The Basis To All Good Relationships.” Straightening himself out, placing a hand over where his heart should be. Papyrus cleared his nonexistent throat and continued. “Ahem, Hello I Am The Great Papyrus And This Is My Brother Sa-an, Axe! And This Is My Other Brother, Dust.”

Fighting with herself to keep from laughing at this sweet creature’s antics. Emma extended her hand in greeting. “Hello, Papyrus it is a pleasure to meet you and your brothers. My name is Emma, but my friends tend to call me Em. Would you like to be my friend?”

Before Papyrus could say anything and sweep Emma into another hug, Dust butted in. “Hey, Pap I think I can smell something burning.”

“OH OUR LUNCH!” With that, Papyrus once more left the room. Leaving Emma alone again with the other two.

Biting back another sigh Emma turned to face the two grinning skeletons. “I know there is most likely nothing I can say to convince you that I didn’t try to hurt your brother, but can we please come to some sort of compromise?”

“Like what?” Axe’s bass growl dripped with suspicion as he crossed his arms over his chest. Dust pulled a knife out of his jacket and started to play with it. Both continued to glare at the girl.

“If you’re still worried that I’ll call the police, just let me dial the number for Citizens Advice. Then we either put the phone on loudspeaker so you can hear everything or once I’ve dialled I pass the phone to you with the information you need and you rearrange my appointment. And when Papyrus comes back in I keep the sarcasm to a minimum, and you drop the death threats at least until it’s time to go.”

“Or we could kill you right now.” Axe’s perpetual grin took on an evil edge as he summoned a bone-like axe.

“Okay,” Emma said walking back to the coffee table, picking up her stuff and putting it back on. “Shall we get going?”

“What?” Staring in shocked silence at this strange human in her battered old hat, dirty long-sleeved tunic top, grey waistcoat and black leggings. This is just not normal. Who just stands there patiently waiting for someone to kill them? Was she still trying to play them? In vain Axe tried to check her soul again, maybe he should just pull it out and show Papyrus that this human was lying through her teeth. 

Just when he was about to do this Emma began to speak again. “Well, I figure that you don’t want to get blood all over your living room floor, so you are going to kill me somewhere else. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I am going to fight you every step of the way. Not that it will do me any good, so if you could do me the small favour of dumping my body somewhere it will be found in the next 48 hours, with some form of identification on it, I won’t start screaming until we leave the house... Oh, have you thought of what you are going to tell Papyrus yet?”

“So that’s your game, use Papyrus against me?” Axe’s crimson orb flared like a small nova, as he took a threatening step towards her.

“No, just curious how you are going to explain it to your bro’.” Emma sighed once more as she gave in to the weariness that had been building in her for the last couple of minutes and sat back down on the couch. She took off her hat and bag and placed them down next to her. “Look, I don’t know what else to say to convince you that I don’t want to hurt your brother, that I did not attack him or stab myself to fool the police. So if you are going to kill me, could you please just get it over with. I’m too tired to care anymore.” 

It took Axe’s rage-filled mind a few seconds to register what had been said. “Wait, what did you just say?”

“That I’m tired. Look, I get it you don’t trust humans and you want to protect your brother. So shall we just get this over with?” Emma said gently massaging her chest wishing two things. One that her chest would stop hurting and two that her stupid brain would stop doing this to her. First, it treated this like a visit to a friends and now the stupid thing was calmly organising her death like it was a trip to the supermarket. Why did her brain keep doing this to her? She knew these monsters distrust would be the death of her, but her brain just did not seem to care.

Axe’s harsh voice cut through Emma’s mental rant “No the stab thing.”

“Oh…. I did say scars, as in more than one. Did you really think that those bastards left me alone after one measly little cut on the cheek?” Emma asked as she raised her top over her head, revealing the rest of the silvery marks to the pair of belligerent skeletons.

It was a few moments before Axe spoke again. “Alright, give me the information I’ll make the stupid call... But if you hurt my little bro in any way...”

“I know, you’ll kill me where I stand... Oh, and thank you.” Emma cut in as she pulled her top back down and handed the skeleton the information with a relieved smile on her face. She was really grateful someone else was going to do the talking.

Axe grunted instead of replying as he walked off to make the call. This strange little human meant nothing to him, but the kid could not have done all that to herself and she seemed to make Pap happy, so he would give her a pass for now.

Meanwhile, back in the sitting room, Emma had given in to temptation, got her sketchbook out and started to idly doodle. Part of her would have loved to draw the skeleton who once again was sprawled over the same chair from earlier, still playing with the knife. However, she didn’t think that the belligerent creature would like it, so she stuck to doodling while trying to figure out what was going on in her brain.

This process was stopped by Dust’s quiet voice. “What are you doing?” 

“Just drawing.” Emma looked up, realising that like yesterday there were some pretty macabre images in among her normally light-hearted doodles. 

“Why?” Dust asked as he stood up, took the sketchbook and started to flick through it.

“I find it relaxing,” Emma replied wearily, watching the skeleton who had over two months of work in his clawed hands.

Ignoring the look she was giving him, Dust continued to look through the book. He had to admit she had some talent, he could easily recognise the monsters she had drawn, all the images were quite nice. Then he saw the stuff Emma had drawn in the hospital. “What the FUCK is this?” Brandishing the sketchbook like it was a weapon and pointing to the picture of Papyrus slowly turning to dust. “Do you get some sick pleasure from this?”

“No” Emma could not bring herself to look at what she had drawn, it was still too raw a memory for her.

“Then what?” Dust growled, sounding more like Axe than himself.

“I just wanted it out of my system,” Emma said quietly, as she pulled her legs up hugging them, her voice got quieter as she continued. “Dad would always talk things out, either with the people at work or Mum when he got home. But there was no one there, so I tried to draw it out, so I wouldn’t see it every time I closed my eyes. But god, the look in his eye …. Eye light? How could I ever forget that?”

Silence fell across the room as Emma got lost in her thoughts until she felt something touch the back of the head. Flinching at the touch, Emma looked up to see Dust holding out her sketchbook. “Here, put it away.”

“Okay, thank you” taking the book back and hugging it to her chest, before putting it back into her bag.

Dust settled back into the chair and turned on the T.V. Before completely settling down to watch something, he looked over to the girl and asked her about the thing that had been bugging him for a while. “Why did you help Papyrus?”

“I didn’t, I just called the police.” Seeing Dust raising a bony eye ridge Emma sat up straight and spread her arms wide as she continued. “Look at me, I’m no fighter, what chance did I have against five armed men? I was going to throw my shopping at them in an attempt to distract them, but they spotted me and well the rest is history... If the police and that healer had not shown up when they did, we would both be dead now.”

“Yeah, but why did ya get involved at all? You could have just walked on by and they would have left you alone.”

“I just could not watch someone else die... Not again.” The last bit came out in a barely audible whisper.

After that, the pair lapsed into silence as they looked at the T.V. without really seeing what was on it, their minds going to different places. This continued until Axe reappeared to inform Emma that he had rearranged her appointment for tomorrow morning at 11. After a very grateful “Thank you” from Emma they fell back into silence until Papyrus came to tell them that lunch was ready.

Papyrus led the way through to the dining room. If you had asked Emma what the room looked like, she would not have been able to answer you, for all her attention was on the table in the centre of the room. She had thought Papyrus had been exaggerating when he said he was making a feast, but there it was. The table looked like it would collapse under the sheer weight of food on it. All of it looked amazing and the smell was making her mouth water, but the vast amount of it was intimidating. Even considering the size of the three skeletons with her, that was an awful lot of food to get through. “Wow Papyrus, if this tastes half as good as it smells, then this is going to be awesome. I hardly know where to start.”

“Nyeh Eh Eh Thank You, Tiny Friend” Papyrus chuckled as he ushered Emma into a chair and filled her plate with a very generous serving, before serving himself and his brothers with even bigger portions.

The food tasted even better than it looked. Throughout the meal, Emma expressed her pleasure at Papyrus’s cooking skills by heaping praise and compliments on him. This made the tall skeleton’s cheekbones glow a rusty orange colour, which in turn, fascinated Emma. She loved the way the light came up from within him, she was pretty sure this was his way of blushing. She also found herself having to fight the urge to get her sketchbook out and try to capture the way the light played across his bones.

During the meal, Axe relaxed enough to tease his younger brother. Dust, on the other hand, seem distracted, aside from throwing some strange looks at Emma, he totally ignored everyone while picking at his food, lost in his own little world. That was until Axe clipped him around the back of his skull and told him to eat his food or hand it over. This caused Dust to glare at the other relatively short skeleton while shovelling the rest of his food into his mouth as fast as he could.

Shortly after Dust finished Emma had to admit defeat as well. However much she loved Papyrus’s cooking she just could not eat another bite. The other two made short work of the remaining food. 

Papyrus then suggested they move back into the sitting room, but as Emma got up to follow him she felt a bony hand on her shoulder. Looking back she spotted Axe who was looking at Papyrus. “Hey bro, it’s getting on, I think it’s time I took the kid home.”

“Ooow.” Papyrus looked so disappointed that Emma just had to say something.

“Hey, Pap would you like to meet up tomorrow? Your brother Axe was kind enough to get my appointment changed to 11, but afterwards I’m free, so if you want we could meet up… say 12 o’clock at the market square?”

“OH YES, THAT WOULD BE WONDERFUL!” Looking over at his brother. “Do You Want Me To Fetch Her Belongings? So You Can Get Going.”

“Oh, I don’t want to be a bother, if you could just call…”

“Yeah bro, you do that.” Axe cut in as he tightened his grip on Emma’s shoulder.

“Look, you don’t have to bother. I’ve got some money, so if you could just call me a cab and I’ll get out of your hair.” Emma said as she tried to free herself from the skeleton’s grip.

In response to this Axe merely tightened his hold on her again until she finally stopped struggling. Then he leaned down so his head rested on her shoulder and whispered in her ear. “You’re a cab, ain’t got any hair and I’m taking ya home.”

Emma flinched as she felt his hot breath against her neck, after a moment she forced herself to relax. “I walked right into that one.” Sighing, she asked, “I don’t have a choice do I?”

She could feel his deep chuckle through her back as he replied. “Nope.”

“Oh, It’s So Nice To See You Two Getting Along.” Said Papyrus, as he came back in carrying Emma’s hat and bag.

“Yeah,” Emma said warily as she reached for her belongings. Axe straightened up and released his grip for now. She could also hear Dust chuckling from his chair, he seemed to be enjoying the show.

“Oh Miss Emma, The Market Square Is Quite Big, How Will I Find You Tomorrow?” Papyrus asked with a slightly worried frown marring his normally happy face.

“That’s easy, you know the benches at the edge of the market that are under the trees?”

“Yes”

“Well, I’ll be sitting on one of them if I get there before you. I should be easy to spot, I'll have my hat on, it’s my favourite one. I always have it with me when I go out unless I know I’m going somewhere like the theatre.” Emma smiled as she held out her hat for Papyrus to look at.

It was the same hat that she had been wearing yesterday, but now it sported two new feathers and green lenses instead of the dark ones that she preferred. Emma had been lucky that the goggles had come with a couple of spare sets. She just hoped her friend Paul would be there on Saturday. Paul worked as a technician at the local university and had access to all the machines. Hopefully, he’ll be able to make a new pair of lenses for her.

These thoughts passed quickly through Emma’s mind as she looked up at her new skeletal friend. “I’ve got to be about the only person in Ebott that walks around with goggles on their hat… Oh, and you can drop the Miss, we’re friends after all.”

Before Papyrus could ask her about it, or anything else, Axe drew Emma tight against his body. “It’s time to go.”

“Oh Alright,” Papyrus pouted a little bit before his normal smile returned. “Until Tomorrow Little Morsel… Oh, I Mean Emma.”

Just as she was about to reply Emma was plunged into utter darkness. There was no light or sound, it was bitter cold, her chest started to ache again and she could not breathe. The only thing that seemed to be anchoring her in this empty void was Axe’s arm around her waist.

Then it was all over. Just as Emma started to panic she found herself falling forward on to the beautiful solid ground, gasping for breath. Slowly sitting up and looking around she was surprised to find herself outside her house.

Behind her Axe’s dark gravelly chuckle filled the air, but when Emma turned to glare at him there was only the empty street. With his final words lingering in the still air. “Be seein’ ya Kid.”


	4. Chapter 4

Once again, Emma’s night was haunted by the same vague dreams. This time she could almost make out some of the figures. The emotions were just as intense as before, but she was sort of grateful for the cold this time because the warmer the weather got, the more unbearable it became to sleep in her attic bedroom.

Her old wooden bed creaked as she got up. The bed was made of a light honey coloured wood. It was a double, so she had plenty of room for her slight frame to spread out in during the night. The bed was older than Emma herself and it stayed together more out of stubbornness than anything else.

Emma Sighed as she pulled the light cotton sheet she had been sleeping under back into place. She really needed a new bed, just one more thing on the endless to-do list. 

After she had finished making her bed she walked over to where she had an old chair full of clean clothes. Another thing on her to-do list was to put away her clothes. Emma was great at remembering to wash things but was terrible at remembering to put them away, so they tended to end up in little heaps all over the furniture in her room. 

Rummaging through the pile of clothes, Emma found a royal blue medieval-style blouse with drawstring ties down the front. She also picked out a light blue full-length skirt with patch pockets that wouldn’t clash with the top.

After getting dressed she walked over to the dresser where she kept her jewellery. As she was meeting her new friend later, she had decided that she would make a bit more effort with her appearance. So instead of just pulling her shoulder-length auburn hair into a simple ponytail, Emma found a blue silk rose hair clip to hide her hair tie. She matched this with a pair of earrings in the shape of blue roses to carry on the theme. She didn’t own any makeup so she just put on a little light perfume. Emma finished off her outfit by putting on the watch that she had forgotten yesterday and hanging a simple spiral pendant, made from twisted iron, around her neck.

Emma groaned as she headed down the two flights of stairs to the kitchen for a quick breakfast. A new bed and putting away her clothes were the least of her problems, if things didn't work out with Citizen Advice today she was at risk of losing the only home she has ever known. Okay, a five-bedroom house for just one girl plus her seven-year-old tabby cat was probably too much, but it was her home. Even if she was forced to sell the house it would just cause a whole new set of problems. Emma was just about surviving on the benefits she was getting from the government. It was not much and she would be lucky if it covered a room in a bedsit, let alone a flat. Either way, she would have to give up her cat which she really didn’t want to do, Shadow was the closest thing to family Emma had left.

Speaking of Shadow, the cat had decided it was time for Emma to stop her dreary musings and feed her. She did this by launching herself at Emma as she came into the kitchen with a mighty “Meowww”.

“Damn it Shadow, haven’t I got enough holes in me?” Emma demanded as she caught the cat and put her down on the kitchen counter.

All she got in reply was Shadow’s best impression of a Harley Davidson as she started to purr madly and rub herself up against Emma’s outstretched hand. 

“Alright menace, I’m happy to see you too.” Emma smiled as she fussed the cat a bit, before replenishing her food and water bowls for the day.

Emma grabbed a quick bowl of cereal for herself before slipping on her sandals and grabbing her hat and bag. She wondered if she should have given her belongings another dose of fabric freshener as she left her house for the appointment. She really did not want anybody else thinking that she had committed murder. What the skeletons had said yesterday had really gotten to her. She was worried that other monsters would smell dust on her, so last night she dosed her hat and old college bag with a very generous amount of the stuff. She had also done her sandals because they were the only pair she owned and even though it was still early spring the country was having an unseasonable heatwave. Emma just hoped that it was not the scars themselves that were giving off the scent. She knew that monsters had a better sense of smell than humans, but she didn’t know how much stronger it was. She also hoped that she had not gone overboard trying to rid of it, the last thing she wanted was to make her tall new friend sneeze.

As she continued to walk her thoughts turned to Papyrus. It was really strange how comfortable she felt with him. Emma had a hard time telling if a gap in a conversation was natural or just awkward, this tended to paralyse her. She would try to think of something to say, but would usually fail miserably with her mouth feeling like it had been glued shut. So when she was with a group of people, Emma just tended to end up sitting quietly somewhere. She was normally so quiet that people forgot she was there. Her mum used to call it pulling a Susan De-ath, like the character in the Discworld books. When this happened she tended to hide in a book or get her sketchbook out. It was only Emma’s friends or family that could draw her out and they were all people she had known for years.

That was just it, the only people she truly felt comfortable with she had known for years. But Papyrus she had known for literally one day, yet it felt like she had known him forever and that was what was really odd in all this. Emma should be way more nervous and wary of her new skeleton friend, especially in light of what his brothers had tried to do to her. Maybe getting knocked unconscious two days in a row had loosened something up inside her head, or it could simply be that his loud and energetic personality, which was quite like her childhood friend Stephanie’s, just put her at ease. Either way, Emma would hopefully be seeing him later. Maybe she could figure it out then, but for once she was not going to let her fears take away the chance to make a new friend.

For now, it was time to concentrate on getting a few things off her to-do list. Mentally going over what she needed to discuss with her adviser from Citizens Advice kept Emma occupied for the remaining time it took her to get to the appointment.

The appointment lasted half an hour, which meant she got to the market square with 15 minutes to spare. The session itself had gone reasonably well. They had managed to get through most of the important stuff, but unfortunately, the only problem they could not really help with was the biggest one she was facing at the moment. However, they had been able to give her some information that might help.

Stifling a groan as she sat down on the same bench as she had on Monday. “Great, more calls to make and most likely more forms and hoops to jump through.” Emma thought to herself as she settled down to wait for Papyrus. “Alright, what to do while I wait? Dwell on my problems? Let my stomach tie itself into knots wondering if Papyrus will show up or not? Or get my sketchbook out and lose myself trying to draw that bunny stallholder and see if I can make her fur look fluffy this time.”

Of course, Emma chose the last option as she pulled out her sketchbook and happily lost herself to the challenge of trying to make a giant humanoid bunny look fluffy. That was something she had noticed, monsters, on the whole, were much bigger than humans. Conversely, being on the small side for a human, Emma often got mistaken for a child, which she found quite funny. Even though she was 27 years old, fully grown, with what her mother would have called an hourglass figure (Emma would laughingly say she got big tits and a big butt with a few extra curves she could do without), it was still kinda sweet to think that she could pass for a child with some people.

Her happy musing and sketching continued until a tall shadow loomed over her. “Miss Emma?”

Looking up she smiled at the skeleton who was precariously leaning over her. “Papyrus, I thought I told you that you could drop the Miss. There is no need to be so formal, we’re friends after all.”

Straightening up to his full height Papyrus’ cheekbones took on a faint colour as he spoke: “I Shall Endeavor To Remember That, My Tiny Friend.”

“It’s alright ‘Mr Papyrus’ I’ll have to just tease you, my tall friend, until you get it,” Emma said, tapping the bench and trying to keep the mirth out of her voice. “Come sit down, you must get a crick in your neck always having to look down so much.”

Papyrus sat down with a “Nyeh.” It was hard to tell if this sound was his version of a huffy pout or just his signature laugh because Papyrus had once again used his scarf to cover the lower half of his face.

As Emma put away her sketchbook, she started hearing a faint rattling sound coming from the skeleton sitting next to her. It was barely audible over the noise of the market, but it was definitely there. Looking over at him she noticed that the normally confident skeleton was missing. Instead, there was a rather nervous looking one, with tiny beads of orange sweat dotting his skull. The rattling sound was being caused by him shaking slightly; he was also wringing his gloved hands and his small white eye-lights were unfocused and looking off into the distance.

Gently Emma reached across and placed her hand on top of his. “Papyrus what’s wrong?”

Blinking, Papyrus straightened up slightly and looked over at the small person sitting next to him. Trying to put his normal confidence back into his voice he answered “Oh No… Everything Is Fine… How Can It Not Be With Someone As Great As I?”

Rising one eyebrow in query Emma said. “Pap you do know you’re a terrible liar right? Something is clearly bothering you, but if you don’t want to talk abou…”

A sudden thought occurred to her. She had picked the market square because it was the one place she could think of that both of them knew and could get to. Raising her hands to her mouth in horror as the realisation hit her. “Oh God, Papyrus I’m so sorry. Did I just force you to walk back through the place you were attacked to get here? No wonder you’re so rattled.”

It was Papyrus’ turn to raise his eye ridges in surprised consternation at the way the conversation was going. “Emma There Is No Need To… WAIT WAS THAT A PUN?” Furrowing his bony eye ridges in mock anger he sighed dramatically “I Knew It Was A Mistake To Leave You Alone With My Brothers!”

Realising what she had just said, Emma groaned as she buried her head in her hands. “Oh god, I’m sorry. I guess I’ve got more to apologise for than my poor choice in meeting places.”

“Though I Wish You Had A Better Sense Of Humor,” Papyrus said as he gently raised her head to look at him. “There Is No Need To Apologise. While I Am Saddened To Find Out That People Can Act Like That. They Did Me No Lasting Harm.”

“Pap are you sure you’re alright? It only happened two days ago, I know I can’t even look at the drawings I did yet.” Sorrow and worry shimmered in her eyes as she looked up at her new friend.

In response to this Papyrus slowly moved to cup her left cheek and started to tenderly stroke her scar. “I Am Truly Fine My Sweet Little Friend And If Anyone Should Be Apologising Here It Should Be Me. Not Only Were You Grievously Wounded When You Protected Me From Those Men, But The Very Next Day My Own Brothers Attacked You, Injuring You Again. It is a wonder that you wanted to see me again after all that.” This last bit came out in the quietest voice Emma had ever heard from him as he dropped his hands back into his lap and hung his head in shame. 

Emma’s natural instinct to comfort a friend kicked in. Taking off her hat and putting it down on the bench, she stood up placing herself squarely in front of the tall skeleton. She wrapped her arms around his head in a soft embrace while lowering her own head down slightly until their foreheads touched. “I don’t regret it. So what if I ended up with a few scars, I would do it all again in a heartbeat.” A rueful smile spread across her face as she continued “and as for yesterday. How can I stay mad at them over a case of mistaken identity when it worked out so well for me?”

“HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT? THEY HURT YOU!” Papyrus cried as he wriggled himself free from her embrace to stare at Emma.

Merriment danced in Emma’s eyes and quickly spread across the rest of her face. It even seeped into her voice as she answered. “Because I got to meet you. And have one of the most awesome meals I can ever remember.” Her smile turned ironic with her next words. “As for your brothers’ actions. I admit it was scary, but it was also understandable.”

“Nyeh?”

“Oh come on Papyrus how can I stay mad at them, they thought I had attacked you. I know for a fact that if my Dad had been there and they had actually caught one of those bastards that attacked us. He would have quite happily held their coats, pointed out all the nice squishy bits for them to hit, while patiently waiting his turn to put the boot in.”

“WHAT!??”

“My family are descended from Celts. So we’re pretty kin oriented, meaning we would do whatever we could do to help or protect those we view as family.” Emma winced a bit at the next words that came out of her mouth. “Which also means we’re pretty good at holding a grudge when someone hurts one of our own. Yes, in the long run, I know that letting the law do its thing is better and causes fewer problems, but there is a small part of me that wishes I could introduce those jerks to your brothers, sit back and watch the ensuing carnage.” Emma hugged herself as she looked away, not wanting to see the disappointment that was most likely on this sweet creature’s face. “Sorry...I guess that’s not what you wanted to hear.”

There were a few moments of silence, then, sighing, Papyrus gently pulled Emma onto his lap. Wrapping his arms around her while resting his head on top of hers. “They Truly Hurt You, But You Are Safe Now.” 

His embrace was so warm and comforting that it took Emma back to a time when she was small enough to fit on her mother’s lap. It felt so good to be held like this again, it would be so easy to just stay like this and forget about the world just for a bit. But Emma’s conscience would not let her leave Papyrus thinking she was still upset with his brothers. So instead, she spoke up “Pap your brothers didn’t hurt me that much, and what damage they did do is gone. Whichever one of you healed me did such an amazing job that when I woke up this morning I was not stiff or sore. And see there is not even a mark left.” She wriggled around until she could hold up the hand that Axe had injured yesterday for him to see.

A soft chuckle emanated from the skeleton as he examined the hand. “Though It Is Nice To Hear You Defend My Brothers, I Was Actually Referring To The Men That Attacked Us. It Is Only Natural To Feel Some Resentment Towards Them. Even I, As Great As I Am, Have To Admit To A Small Twitch In My Soul When I Think Of What They Did. But As Long As Neither Of Us Acts On It, We Should Be Fine.”

As he spoke Papyrus continued to examine Emma’s hand. It looked so small and delicate in his gloved one. A frown spread across his face as he turned her hand over to see a faint scar running along her knuckles. Absently he took one long gloved phalange and ran it gently along the scar as he lost himself in thought.

“Pap, you can’t blame that one on them or your brothers. I got it years ago.”

“Yes, It Happened When You Were Still At School.” He replied distractedly.

“Papyrus, how do you know that?” A note of concern entered Emma’s voice as she asked this.

“Ummm…” Papyrus for once did not know what to say. He did not want to lie to his new friend, but how could he tell her the truth. He started to nervously rattle, he should just tell her, she would understand, right? But he didn’t want to lose the first friend he had made since coming here.

“Woa, Pap, stop with the mini earthquake. Please just tell me how you knew that. I know I didn’t tell you yesterday, I was too busy complimenting your cooking for that. By the way, I still think it was awesome.” This last comment got a weak chuckle from the nervous skeleton, but he still would not say anything. He just sat there shaking, with sweat once more gathering on his skull.

“It looks like I’m going to have to try harder if I want him to calm down enough to tell me what’s going on.” Emma thought to herself as she patted the still shaking skeleton. It was a rather odd sensation considering she was still on his lap.

Sighing, she tried again “Pap, I promise to listen to you and not get upset… Well, I'll do my best to not get upset, even if it’s something creepy like your brothers breaking into the police station for the incident report.”

Papyrus cried out in shock as he looked down at the small human sitting there. “WHAT!! MY BROTHERS WOULD NEVER DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT!” 

Sighing some more, Emma wriggled around until she was once again standing in front of the skeleton. “Oh come on Papyrus, they must have done something like that to have known that I was in the hospital on Monday. Also, the fact that Axe dropped me off outside my house without me having to tell him where I live, does kinda have a bit of a creepy stalker vibe to it.”

“Oh Sorry, They Are Just…” Words failed him again. Papyrus knew his brothers were good, they just didn’t know how to act around people anymore. Oh stars, he wished he could just tell Emma everything. She was bound to figure it out anyway if he was right about what had happened to them.

Papyrus was brought back out of his panicked thoughts by Emma’s soft voice. “They were just looking out for you, right? You know, it’s kinda sweet how protective they are of you. It’s also kinda funny that they thought it necessary to go to such lengths to scare a little thing like me.” Grimacing she rubbed the back of her head. “Yeah, not so fun to live through, but it’s funny when you look back at it. To tell you the truth, I’m sorta surprised that they’re not here with you, to protect you from all the bad people out here.”

“Hmph, They Trust Me. I Can Take Care Of Myself.” As he said this he crossed his arms and puffed out his chest, like a small child trying to prove something to an adult.

Raising an eyebrow, Emma could not help a bit of mirthful sarcasm entering her voice as she replied. “Yes, they trust you, it’s the rest of the world they have a problem with. But that’s getting off the point. Was it your brothers that told you about the incident when I was at school?” Maybe she was making too big of a deal out of it. She would have told him about the scar if he had asked, it’s not like it was a big secret or anything. But the way Papyrus was acting, coupled with her own behaviour, was starting to freak her out. Emma was not the sort of person to sit on the lap of someone who was practically a stranger. Hugs were one thing, but to letting a guy pull her onto his lap, what was she thinking? Papyrus obviously knew something, she just had to convince him to tell her.

These thoughts flashed through her mind in the time it took for Papyrus to answer. “I Can Assure You My Brothers Had Nothing To Do With This.”

“Then how Pap? Please, I just want to understand what is going on.”

“Umm… It Is Rather Complicated.”

Emma fought the urge to roll her eyes and sigh again, as she regarded the skeleton in front of her. He was now nervously fiddling with his gloves, while a faint blush covered his cheekbones. Instead, she let her breath out slowly as she put on her hat and bag. Turning back to him with a soft smile she said. “Come on then let’s go. Sweet or savoury your choice.”

“What?” Papyrus stared at her dumbly as she stood there smiling with a hand outstretched.

A soft giggle escaped from Emma’s lips as she replied. “Well, it’s lunchtime so let’s get a bite to eat and you can try to explain it to me. It’s your choice, do you want something sweet, if so we can head to Muffet’s, or do you want a full meal, if that’s the case we could head to Grillby’s instead.”

“Grillby’s? Doesn’t He Do Rather Greasy Burgers? That Does Not Sound Very Healthy.”

“Well, neither does sweets from Muffet’s bakery, when you think of it,” Emma said as she gently tried to get Papyrus to stand. “Grillby’s may have been a grease trap underground, but up here it’s one of the coolest restaurant bars I’ve ever tried. It does so much more than burgers and has the warmest feel to the place.”

“Emma Could You Please Stop With The Puns?”

“Urr… What did I say that was a pun? My humour tends to run to sarcasm and irony.” Emma looked at the tall skeleton in confusion.

“If I Remember Correctly, Grillby, Who The Bar Is Named After, Is A Fire Elemental.”

“Oh sorry, I really don’t mean to pun they just come out sometimes. But if it will heat up this conversation, I am sure I could alight on a few for you.”

“NO, NO PUNS, THEY ARE BANNED!!” Papyrus cried as he leapt to his feet. His worries were forgotten for the moment as he glared down at the grinning human in front of him.

“Well, it got you on your feet didn’t it?” Emma could not stop smiling, seeing the way Papyrus’ reacted was just too much fun. No wonder his brother loved teasing him.

“Humph! Yes, Very Clever. DON’T DO IT AGAIN!”

“Pff haha… Alright, I’ll try. So have you decided yet?”

“Nyeh?”

“Sweet or Savoury? Come on, I’ll even treat you if you haven’t got your wallet back yet.” Emma said, smiling up at her tall new friend. “Though, if you want my opinion. I tend to find something sweet is the most comforting when dealing with stressful stuff, but that’s just me.”

“Oh, We Have It Back, But It Actually Belongs To My Uncle,” Papyrus said as the pair started to walk.

“Okay, so I’m buying. You still haven’t told me what you want.”

“Oh, Sorry, Sweet Will Be Perfectly Fine.”

“Alright then, Muffet’s it is. If we hurry, we can beat the lunchtime rush and grab one of the booths. That way we can have some privacy for our chat, or if you prefer we get something to go and find somewhere quiet to sit down and eat.”

“Let Us See What It Is Like When We Get There.” Papyrus smiled as he took her hand, not that Emma could see it with his scarf still tightly wrapped around his face.

They continued on in silence until they reached their destination. Muffet’s Bakery stood on a corner, just off the main shopping district. Emma loved the way the shop looked. From the tall elegant gothic windows, with deep purple drapes held back by black ties, to the light lavender walls hung with tasteful art prints. The tables and chairs were black with rich plum seat cushions and matching table cloths. If you looked closer at cloths you could see that they were covered with a delicate spider web-like lace pattern. But the most stunning feature of the bakery was its floor, which was painted to look like you were walking on a giant spider’s web.

Emma groaned as the pair walked into the shop. They were too late; all the booths were taken and the few tables that were left wouldn’t give them any privacy for their talk. “Well, I guess it’s sweets to go. Come on, there's not much of a queue.” She said, gently tugging her friend further into the bakery. As always she glanced down to make sure that none of Muffet’s little spider helpers were underfoot. Logically she knew that the little things were fast enough to get out of the way, but Emma always double-checked just to make sure.

She watched in amusement as Papyrus approached the counter, only to lean down so his nasal cavity was almost touching the display case. She would not be surprised to find out he was drooling under that scarf of his. Especially with that hungry look in his small eye-lights.

“Oh Wowie, There Are So Many Tasty Looking Things Here.”

“I know, and they taste just as good as they look, if not better. But alas, I can not afford to buy the whole display case. So I’m afraid you’re going to have to pick something.”

At this statement, an audible whine could be heard coming from the skeleton next to her.

“I know, I know, life is full of tough decisions.”

“Ah, huhu, do you need some help dearie?”

Emma looked up into the five black eyes of the speaker. “Could you give us a second please Muffet? You know how hard it is to pick between your treats.”

“Of course dearie, take your time.” With that Muffet turned to serve another customer.

Emma turned to watch the willowy humanoid spider lady work. Muffet, as normal, was wearing a gothic lolita style dress. Today's dress was black with deep purple accents that complemented her light purple skin. She also had matching purple bows holding up her black hair into two pigtails. Her six long slender arms worked in perfect harmony, moving with a grace that would put a dancer to shame. They worked the till, took the money and gave change to customers, while passing out filled orders. As she did this the little ones waited on tables and kept the shop tidy. It was quite a sight to see and one that Emma loved.

Another whine from next to her drew her attention back to the tall monster. Who now had his skull so firmly pressed against the display case that Emma was starting to get worried that the glass might break. Looking more closely she could now clearly see a growing damp patch on the front of his scarf, also his eye-lights were completely blown. “Pap. Earth to Papyrus, are you still with me? Blink once for yes, twice for no.” Emma said as she gently placed a hand on top of his skull.

Papyrus struggled to focus in on the soft voice and gentle touch of his human. The smells that surrounded him were making it incredibly hard to ignore his baser instinct to consume everything in sight. With a great deal of effort, he drew himself back from his reverie to answer her. “Oh Sorry, What Did You Say Friend?”

Smiling down at the skeleton who was blinking owlishly up at her, Emma said. “I was going to ask, since you seem to be having so much trouble deciding, if you want me to see if Muffet had any tasters or selection boxes we could have.”

Slowly Papyrus straightened back up and somehow managed to nod his assent. He continued to struggle against the alluring smells all around him, as well as the terrible hunger it sparked in him. Trembling phalanges sought out Emma’s small hand in an attempt to anchor himself.

Emma in turn gently squeezed his hand and turned her attention back to Muffet, unaware of the internal struggle going on next to her.

Muffet already had a hand extended with an A5 sheet of paper in it. This was the Other Menu, the one most people didn’t know about, the one with all her special treats and tasters on.

“Thanks,” smiling Emma took the menu and quickly looked through it. She decided on the premium tasters box and a mixed selection of Muffet’s doughnuts, also two of Muffet’s famous spider ciders. This would give Papyrus the biggest choice for the money she had. Okay, it was going to make shopping this week a little tight. 

“But it will be worth it. If Pap enjoys it.” She thought to herself as she placed the order.

As some of the smaller spiders went off to fill the order, Muffet smiled revealing two white fangs. “It’s been a while dearie. How have you and your mother been? It’s rare to see you without her.”

The familiar ache spread through Emma’s chest at the mention of her Mother. It was not the sharp pain of yesterday, but a dull tightness. It had been months, but it still hurt. Instead of answering right away, she paid Muffet to buy a few precious moments to centre himself.

“God, why is it so hard to say it? It should get easier with time, not harder. Come on, just say it, get it over with.” Emma sternly told herself as she fought with her tight throat and mouth to get the sad words out.

Papyrus missed what Muffet said, but could feel the sudden tension coming off his small one. Still struggling to get his brain to work properly, he let his instincts lead him. He wrapped himself around her in order to comfort and protect them both. Only to have her suddenly ripped from his arms and thrown across the shop accompanied by angry yelling. “Crooks, what the fuck do you think you are doing?”

Blinking in confusion Emma tried to figure out what just happened. One moment she was taking comfort from her friend’s embrace, the next she found herself pressed up against an orange hoodie. Looking up she found herself staring at another tall skeleton with a very familiar skull. It was almost identical to Papyrus’ with the same elongated shape and long narrow jaw, but his teeth were blunt and straight with what looked like a lollipop stuck between them. Also, his skull seemed to be slightly fuller and although his eye-lights were white like Papyrus’ they were larger and they seemed to be brighter too. At the moment they were staring furiously at Papyrus who was trying to extricate himself from the table that he had been thrown into.

Emma started to pull herself free from the monster’s unwanted grasp. She remembered the other reason he looked familiar, he was one of a group of skeletons she had quietly dubbed the bar flys because that is where she always saw them. It seemed like every time she met her friends at Grillby’s for breakfast, that by the time they left, one or more of these skeletons would be there propping up the bar. That’s why she called them the bar flys. She had never spoken to, or interacted with, any of them before this, and if this was how they treated people Emma was not sure she wanted to now.

The orange-clad skeleton felt the small human start to move against him. Glancing down he noticed the girl was looking at the other skeleton with concern. “It’s alright honey, I won’t let him hurt ya. You’re safe now.”

“What?” Emma could not believe what this idiot in orange was saying, did he really think Pap would hurt her? Okay, she had not known Papyrus long, but she truly trusted him. If he had wanted to hurt her, he could have easily done it yesterday when she had been completely at his mercy. “ That’s redic…”

An almighty growl coming from the floor stopped Emma mid-sentence. Then she was once more torn from the arms holding her. Everything became a blur as Papyrus, clutching Emma protectively to his chest, fled the shop. She thought she heard the sound of breaking glass and shouting behind her, but Papyrus was running too fast to be certain. As they fled, Emma would catch a sudden flash of orange behind them. Each time this happened Papyrus would speed up, trying to shake their pursuer. This continued until Papyrus collapsed to the ground shaking violently, whimpering between ragged gasps, still clutching Emma tightly against him.

As she started to try to calm her terrified friend she felt him flinch, then relax slightly as Axe’s familiar gruff voice broke through the whimpering. “It’s alright bro, I’ve got ya, everything’s alright, come on let’s get out of here.”

This time she managed to get a breath in before being swallowed by the nothingness of the void. As the darkness pressed in all around her a phrase from one of her favourite authors came unbidden to her mind. Black, blacker, blackest. And cold beyond frozen things. Where is between when there is nought to life but fragile dragon wings. With a bit of rewording, this could make a cool image. But for now, she needed to concentrate on her friend. To this end when she felt solid ground once more pressing into her back, Emma started to coax Papyrus into letting her go.

Only for Axe’s voice to cut in. “So ya gonna eat that little snack, or can I have it?”

Papyrus’ response to this was to rearrange his grip on the human and sit up. Blinking, he found himself in a sitting room he had never seen before. “Brother, Where Are We?”

“Somewhere safe bro,” Axe said as he collapsed into a nearby chair.

Emma looked around to find she knew exactly where Axe had taken them. Letting out a small chuckle she turned a smiling face to her friend, who was holding her like a teddy bear. “However much I hate to admit it. Axe is right, you’re perfectly safe here from that stupid orange-clad bar fly.”

Hugging Emma a little closer Papyrus looked around in confusion. “Yes, But Where Is Here?”

“My Living room,” Emma said, throwing an accusing glare at the grinning skeleton sitting in her Dad’s old chair. “And if you’re that hungry Axe, the kitchen is out back, help yourself, as long as you can take human stuff; I don’t have any monster food.”

Axe’s grin turned positively evil as he summoned a meat cleaver out of thin air. “Oh, I can eat humans and right now I could really go for a head dog.”

“Brother Please, Emma Is Our Friend.”

Axe gave a long-suffering sigh as the meat cleaver vanished. “Bro, love ya to bits, but you do remember that the last human you befriended ended up betraying us all?”

“Emma Would Not Do That” Papyrus said as he moved his friend further away from his brother.

Crossing his arms Axe glared at the human, then looked back at his brother. “Pap, you’ve talked to this snack twice. What makes you so sure she is any different from everyone else we’ve met since coming here?”

“Because I Know Her. It Is Not In Her Nature.”

“That’s not an answer bro.”  
“AARRGG, BECAUSE WE SOUL TOUCHED!” Papyrus could feel his whole skull light up with embarrassment, as the others in the room looked at him incredulously.

“WHAT?” Came from several sides of the room at once, followed by a terrifying roar from Axe. **“YOU FUCKING RAPED MY LITTLE BRO!!”**

Before anyone could stop him, Axe made a hooking motion with his hand. Emma’s chest erupted in searing pain as something glowing emerged from her body.

“BROTHER NO!” Papyrus cried out and watched in horror as his friend’s soul was dragged from her chest for all to see, and what they saw was wrong.

Emma’s soul floated in the middle of the room, held tight by Axe’s magic. Instead of having the bright jewel-like qualities that were normal for a human, the little cartoon heart was barely holding its shape and was so pale that it was almost transparent.

Axe’s hand started to shake. What the fuck was up with this kid? He had seen soul injuries before. Void, he even had a crack or two on his soul, and that was just it. They cracked, broke, even frayed. Stars, even in the most severe cases they turned grey and disintegrated, not whatever this was.

It looked like a fragile bubble, with just a little pressure it would pop. This was wrong, so wrong. Axe extended his senses towards the soul only to find he still could not truly ‘check’ it. About the only thing he was getting was a great sense of sorrow and loss.

Papyrus could only watch as his brother’s sockets became matching black voids. There was no reasoning with him when he got like this. He looked down at his little friend who had curled into a ball of pain and misery, with tears streaming silently down her face. “I am sorry” he whispered as he waited for the inevitable. Only for it not to happen, instead, he watched in amazement as his brother dropped his hand and released his hold on the soul. Slowly the little thing drifted back into Emma’s chest as she uncurled herself and fell into blessed unconsciousness.

Papyrus sighed in relief, only to groan as he looked over at his brother. Axe’s sockets remained blank voids, his hand drifted up to his left socket and started to tug on it violently. He also started to rock back and forth and began mumbling to himself.

Groaning once again Papyrus looked around for somewhere safe to put Emma down, so he could deal with his brother. As he looked around he found a sofa with the unexpected sight of Dust sprawled across it. Letting out a long-suffering sigh. “How Long Have You Been Sitting There?”

“Pfft, long enough. You guys are better than a soap opera. Soul touching? Really Papyrus? You hound dog, I didn’t think you had it in you. Rus or Red yeah, but you not so much. You should’ve known how Axe would react.”

“Brother Please.”

Dust’s face turned flinty as he sat up and looked the other skeleton in the sockets. “Papyrus, we both know I’m not ya brother so drop the act.”

Papyrus raised an eye ridge as he gently shifted his grip on his unconscious friend. “You Are As Good As My Brother And I Will Continue To Treat You As Such. Now Will You Please Move, So I Can Put Emma Down And Tend To My Other Brother?”

“Yeah, whatever.” Getting up and moving to an empty chair, Dust watched as Papyrus tenderly laid the girl down making sure she was comfortable. Before turning to check on his brother. “You do know there isn’t a lot you can do for him when he’s like this, right?”

“Yes, I know, I Just Want To Make Sure He Is Not Doing Any Real Harm To Himself.” Having satisfied himself that his brother was okay, Papyrus turned his attention back to Dust. “Could You Keep An Eye On Them? While I See What Food I Can Find Please.”

“Yeah sure.” Dust mumbled as he used his magic to retrieve the remote from where it had been resting and turned on the T.V. Knowing this was the best he was going to get, Papyrus nodded his thanks as he left the room in search of the kitchen.

Papyrus was shocked, to say the least when he saw Emma’s kitchen. It was not that the kitchen was dirty, in fact, it was very clean. It wasn’t even the appliances that were pretty old but seemed to be in good working order. What shocked Papyrus was the giant crack in the floor and the hole in the ceiling.

The crack ran across the kitchen floor, making an unnaturally steep step. The fridge and counters were on the upper half, while the stove and sink were on the lower section. How did Emma cope with this on a daily basis? It must be so tiring to have to keep going up and down while trying to make anything. Also, that hole looked to be big enough that with very little effort he could pass right through it to the room above. Okay, it was by the wall and the rest of the ceiling looked fine, but it was still worrying.

Sighing, Papyrus turned to the fridge, he would have to talk to Emma about it later. Right now he needed to put together some food. Food always helped keep his brother calm and there was no way he was letting anyone skip a meal on his watch. With that thought in mind, he looked inside the fridge only to find another unpleasant surprise waiting for him.

The fridge was barren, with only a few scraps of leftover food in it. A quick search through the rest of the kitchen revealed some tins and dry goods, but not much more. How could his little friend survive like this? Well, he had worked with less and fed his entire village it would just take a bit longer to get ready.

As for Emma, no wonder her soul looked so weird. The soul always suffered if you didn’t look after yourself. He would just have to make sure that she was cared for properly. Now he just had to convince his brothers of what he knew deep down in his soul, that Emma was a good and kind person and that she would never hurt them.

It took Papyrus about half an hour to make what he considered a decent amount of food for everyone. Making sure to leave some for his friend to have later, he headed back into the front room. He was pleased to find that Emma was awake and sitting cross-legged on the sofa with her sketchbook in her lap. 

Walking over to his friend Papyrus put her share of the food down on a small table next to her. Part of him really wanted to ‘check’ on her, but considering the state of her soul, it would most likely just hurt her more. So he had to settle for asking “How Are You Doing?”

Looking up from her sketchbook and raising one eyebrow, Emma replied. “I’m not sure you want me to answer that Pap. Anyway, I should be asking you that; you’re the one that got thrown into a table earlier.”

“When Did That Happen?”

“When we were at Muffet’s. I had just paid for our food when that stupid orange bar fly ripped me from your arms and threw you across the shop.”

“Bar Fly?” Papyrus asked, blinking in confusion.

“She means that ashtray Stretch, Papyrus.” Dust said as he took one of the remaining plates of food.

“Don’t worry bro, I’ll deal with him later.” Axe rasped out as his eye-light came roughly back into focus.

“Great, someone else can get beat up for once. At least he will deserve it.” Emma muttered to herself as she started to pick at her food.

“Ya know, I could just kill ya now if ya want,” Axe said with a cocked eye ridge as he reached for his plate.

“Brother Please.”

“You know what Sans Skeleton, GO AHEAD I JUST DON’T CARE ANYMORE!” Shouted Emma.

“Emma Perha…”

“Sorry Papyrus I’ve tried to be polite for your sake, but I’ve had it. So far this week I’ve had the living daylights beaten out of me for trying to give a guy his wallet back. Then the very next day I get thrown into a wall and repeatedly threatened and hurt over a case of mistaken identity. Today all I wanted to do was treat my friend because he was upset over something. And what do I get for my trouble? I’ll tell you what: one of my favourite top’s is ruined, my hat is missing and to cap it all off, I get accused of raping someone, plus attacked again, when I’ve clearly never been alone with him. Also, how would you even do such a thing? We’re two... totally... different… species?”

The skeletons looked at the small human in stunned silence, who was now standing in the centre of the room glaring daggers at Axe. 

Papyrus could not believe that he had somehow missed the fact that not only was his friend missing her hat, but her right sleeve was gone as well.

Before he or the others could think of anything to say, Emma turned and stalked out of the room. She just could not take any more. She put up with most things; she’d had to through school, but damn it this was her home. All she wanted was a nice quiet normal day, without pain and death threats. Was that too much to ask? These were some of the thoughts running through her head as she stomped up the stairs to change.

As Emma entered her room, she tore off her ruined top and threw it on the floor. This was all so stupid, she should just try and find her Mum’s old mobile, then get the police or somebody to deal with that damned skeleton Axe. But part of her still wanted to give him another chance, her mind kept whispering to her that he was just trying to protect his brother, and wouldn’t you do the same in his place?

She kicked off her skirt and started removing her jewellery. As she did this her hand caught on the one piece that never really came off, except when she bathed. Pulling out the long silver chain from its resting place between her breasts, Emma looked down at the simple cross and ring now dangling in front of her.

“What would you guys do? I’m so confused right now. I really wish you were still here. You always made things better.” She whispered to the empty air, as the first tears started to fall. Once they started there was no stopping them and soon she found herself collapsing to the floor, sobbing her heart out as all the conflicting emotions came pouring out with her tears.

Downstairs Papyrus did not know if he was more angry or disappointed in his older brother right now. “Brother I Wish You Would Not Jump To Conclusions And Would At Least Try To Think Things Through. I Know It Is Hard For You To Trust, Especially After Everything That Happened. But This Is Not The Underground, We Have A Chance To Move On, To Start Again.”

A faint growl escaped from between Axe’s teeth as he looked his brother square in the face. “You Know the others will never let us forget what we are, or what we did bro.”

“Emma Is Not Like The Others.”

“And when she finds out what we did underground? Don’t you think she will treat you differently then?”

Papyrus hesitated, closing his sockets and taking a deep breath before answering. “No, I Do Not Think She Will. It Is Not The Way She Was Raised. Now, If You Will Excuse Me, I Am Going To Check On My Friend.” With that, he picked up Emma’s plate as well as his own and swept out of the room.

Axe sat there in silence trying to figure out what he was going to do. Humans could not be trusted, life in the Underground had taught him that. Stars, that hell hole taught him that you could only rely on your family and as far as he was concerned Papyrus was his only family. He would do anything to make sure he was safe and happy. Damn that girl, he should have popped that weird soul when he had the chance. He almost had, however much it would have upset his brother, but then, just as he was about to destroy it, he had caught a glimpse of something.

The trouble was he couldn’t remember what he had seen, or why it had made him spare the girl. Of all the times for his stupid brain to malfunction on him. The injury to his skull made his memory spotty at the best of times. It had gotten to the point that he wrote down anything he thought important, so he wouldn’t forget it. This did not help at the moment though, what had he seen that made him risk his brother’s safety? Damn it, what was he meant to do now? Kill the girl and upset Papyrus, or leave her alone and risk her hurting his little brother?

Axe’s thoughts kept going around in these useless circles until Dust’s raucous laughter cut through his mental tirade. “Hahaha, I’ll give the kid this, she really got a creative sense of humour.”

“What?” Axe growled looking over at Dust who was clutching Emma’s sketchbook to his chest while trying not to collapse from laughter.

It took Dust a few minutes to calm down enough to answer. “The kid drew some real rib ticklers in here, but I think I’ll show you them later,” he replied as he closed the sketchbook and put it down on the sofa. Turning back to the other skeleton with a serious expression on his face. “You’ve got more important things to be doing.”

“Like what?” Axe growled.

“That depends on what you saw when you ‘checked’ the girl’s soul.”

“Nothing useful, why?”

“Because she called you Sans, not Axe. Which means the pair did soul touch at the very least, and you better ‘check’ to make sure that they didn’t form a soul bond as well.”

“Fuck,” with that Axe disappeared from the room.

Shaking his head Dust picked the sketchbook back up and followed after him. This was one show he did not want to miss.

In the attic things had settled down. Papyrus had managed to soothe his friend to the point where he could coax her into finishing her lunch. This, in his books, was a good thing, because nothing looked quite as bad when you had a full stomach, at least to him.

After they had both finished eating Papyrus plucked up the courage to ask. “How Are You Feeling?”

Emma stopped fiddling with the hem of the over large T-shirt she was now wearing. Sighing, she turned to look up at her tall friend who was sitting across from her. “Honestly… I don’t know… I just wish someone would tell me what the hell is going on?”

“Emma It Is Rather Hard To Expla…” Papyrus was interrupted by a cacophonous clanging noise coming from the small landing area that opened up into the rest of the attic.

“Aaaah, who the fuck booby traps their bedroom?” The pair turned towards the noise, to find Axe desperately trying to free his skull from some of the wind chimes that were hanging from the ceiling.

The attic ceiling sloped down towards the back of the house. This was also the side the stairs came out on. Emma loved the sound that wind chimes made, so she had taken advantage of the low ceiling and hung some up in this area. When she entered her room she just had to reach up to make them ring. Axe, being at least a foot taller than Emma, was now hopelessly entangled in them. However satisfying it was to see him in pain for once, Emma found that she couldn’t leave him to suffer like this, especially since his hands were now trapped as well.

Getting up off the floor and brushing some crumbs from the baggy dark trousers that she had put on, Emma headed over to the chair at the end of her bed. Picking up the heap of clothes from the chair she dumped them on top of a very surprised Dust who had just chosen that moment to appear on Emma’s bed.

“Hey!” Came Dust’s muffled cry as he fought his way out of the tangled mass of clothing. He glared at the back of the human as she picked up the chair and walked over to Axe.

“Serves you right… Actually, it serves both of you right. What did you expect when you teleport into a girl’s room? … Actually don’t answer that, I’ve got to concentrate on getting this idiot free.” Emma said in exasperation, putting the chair down as close as she could to the madly thrashing skeleton.

The pain Axe was in was getting unbearable as he vainly tried to free himself. Unaware of Emma’s approach he was not prepared for her warm touch on his skull. He jerked back violently and growled threateningly at the human, causing another wave of searing pain to slice through his skull.

“Sans stop that, you’re just gonna make it worse. Now hold still and I’ll see if I can get you loose.”

“Fuck off!” Axe cried as he kicked at the chair that Emma was precariously balanced on.

“Emma, Perhaps I Should Do It?” Papyrus suggested as he watched the pair with growing concern.

Emma cast a critical eye over the situation. Axe was in real danger of doing himself some serious damage if he didn’t calm down soon. It looked like one of the chimes if not more, were caught on the inside of his skull and that could not be good. She had no doubt that Papyrus could calm his brother down, but something told her that his boney fingers would just make matters worse and she would end up having to free two skeletons instead of one.

So instead she just shook her head. “ No, you better stay over there. Don’t want you getting caught up in this too.” Taking a look at the still angrily growling and thrashing skeleton. “Though if you have any tips on how to calm this idiot down… I’d greatly appreciate it.”

“I can hear ya, you know,” Axe snarled as he glared at the small human in front of him.

“Then perhaps you could stop acting like such a baby-bones and let me help you, Sans.” 

Axe gave Emma an odd look. “Why do you keep calling me that?”

Emma blinked in confusion. “You mean Sans? That’s your name right?”

Axe slumped as he looked past the girl at his brother. His voice lost some of its gruffness as he spoke. “You two really did soul touch didn’t ya? Alright, Pap do you really trust her?”

Papyrus smiled softly at his brother, “Yes I Truly Trust Her. She Will Not Hurt You. So Please Brother, Stop Fighting Emma And Let Her Help You.”

“Fine.”

Emma sighed as Axe finally stilled. “I think I’m missing half of this conversation, but thanks I guess. Now try and stay still. I’ll be as gentle as I can, but this still might hurt a bit. Tell me if it gets too much and I’ll stop, alright?”

“Yeah whatever, just get on with it,” Axe said as he braced himself for the ordeal to come.

Dust’s voice piped up from the bed, “what’s there to know? You soul touched, so if Papyrus says ya good, then you are.”

“Still don’t know what that means,” muttered Emma as she tried to concentrate on what she was doing.

“Seriously? Ya don’t know?” Axe grated out as Emma managed to free one of his hands.

Emma dropped her hands for a moment as she looked down at the skeleton in front of her. Huffing in exasperation she replied. “Yes, seriously. You’re forgetting that until monsters came to the surface, the soul was just a vague idea to us. I know I’ve got one, but that’s about it. Now hush I’m trying to concentrate.”

Axe closed his sockets trying not to flinch away from the girl’s soft touch. He never let anyone near the hole, not even his brother, it was just too sensitive. The strange thing was that the girl’s touch didn’t hurt, even as she tugged on a stubborn string. All he could feel was a warm tingling sensation where her hand lingered. He was so caught up in this weird sensation, that it took him a minute or two to realise that she had stopped and was speaking to him. “Huh?”

“I said, now that you’re free you might want to ‘port, or whatever you call it, passed the rest of my wind chimes, so we don’t repeat this,” Emma said with a rueful smile.

“It’s called a shortcut,” Axe mumbled as he disappeared and reappeared next to his brother.

Emma shook her head as she carefully climbed down off the chair. “These skeletons are going to be the death of me one way or another, but perhaps now I might get some answers out of one of them,” she thought to herself. She put the chair back and caught the clothes a disgruntled Dust threw at her, restoring them to their previous resting place. “Dust, I don’t mind you being on my bed, but could you do me a small favour and remove your shoes, please? I would rather not find a boot print on my pillow tonight.”

Dust looked at the girl for a moment before kicking his trainers off onto the floor. “There, happy?”

“Yes thank you,” Emma said as she settled back down on the floor facing the skeletons. “So will one of you please explain what soul-touching is and how it relates to rape? Preferably without the pain and death threats.”

Papyrus groaned, burying his face in his scarf as his skull lit up like a light bulb. This was just too embarrassing, souls were very private things, but Emma deserved to know. Why was it so hard to get the words out?

Axe looked at his brother’s bright orange skull and decided to have mercy on him. “It’s alright bro, I’ve got this.” Gently patting his brother’s glowing skull he settled down on the floor. “Alright let’s start with the basics. The soul is the very accumulation of your being. Everything that makes you, well you, comes from it. Your memories, your emotions are all contained within it. Got that?”

Emma nodded.

“Good, now for the nitty-gritty. Since the soul holds your very essence, any touch on it is considered a sexual act.”

“Okay, I can see that, but Pap why do you think I did something like that?” Emma asked a still furiously blushing skeleton.

“Oh, it gets better than that. Somehow you two managed to do the most intimate form of soul-touching.” Dust snickered from the bed.

“And what’s that?”

“Our soul’s actually touched each other,” Papyrus mumbled from inside his scarf.

“Which means?”

“When two souls touch they exchange information. Everything from how they feel about each other, to their memories.” Axe said as he glanced over at his brother.

“And this is what you think we did?” Emma asked curiously.

“Don’t think, know,” Axe muttered absently, lost in thought. There was something he had specifically come upstairs to do. Now, what was it?

“How? Are you sure?” Emma asked with a stunned look on her face. She had wanted answers, but this was not what she had been expecting.

“Ya called him by his real name, not the nickname the others gave him.” Dust told her as he pointed to Axe.

“Oh god,” Emma groaned as the realisation hit her. Those strange dreams she had been having, they were Papyrus’ memories, not her mind trying to cope with what had happened.

She closed her eyes thinking back over the last few days. The creepy drawings, the cold and hunger, they all had to be things from Papyrus’ past. Opening her eyes, a big grin spread across her face as Emma looked over at her friend who was shyly peeking out of his scarf. “Papyrus you’re amazing.”

“Really?” Papyrus asked slowly coming back out of his scarf.

Emma giggled, “yes really my silly sweet friend.”

Axe was only vaguely listening to the conversation as he had finally remembered what he had come upstairs to do. He had to make sure that these two innocents hadn’t added a soul bond to go with the soul touching. Normally a soul bond only existed between married couples. The bond was a permanent link between souls allowing the pair to share things on a deeper level than with anyone else. The bond could become so strong that when one of them died the other one wouldn’t survive the loss.

Axe sighed in relief as he finished checking his brother’s soul. Whatever else these two had done at least they had managed to avoid that complication. Now he had just got to figure out what to do with the pair. “Wait what did ya say?”

“That your brother is amazing.” Emma looked curiously at the older skeleton. “What don’t you think so?”

“Yeah of course, but ain’t ya bothered by what we did?”

“No, should I be?”

Axe looked at the girl happily sitting in front of them. There was none of the fear or disgust he normally saw when someone found out they had to do to survive. There wasn’t even any pity in her eyes, maybe she just got some of Papyrus’ childhood memories. “Ya do know what we did, don’t you?”

Emma rolled her eyes. “You mean the fact that you used to kill and eat just about anything that moved. You haven’t exactly been subtle about it Sans, or do you prefer Axe?”

Axe blinked in surprise, he couldn’t have heard that right. The kid knew and she didn’t care? “Seriously?”

“Yes, seriously”

“Why?” Axe looked so shocked it was almost funny.

Emma’s expression softened. “I have Papyrus’ memories, I know the hell you both went through. You know what really amazes me?”

The pair shook their heads too stunned to say anything.

“That somehow you managed to protect your little brother through all of that and he still came out of it so sweet and gentle. That says a lot about you Sans.”

Papyrus couldn’t contain his joy any longer. Emma knew and more importantly she understood. He knew it, he just knew it. The soul could not lie. With an extremely happy “Nyeh” he pounced on a very startled Emma and nuzzled her into a fit of giggles, before settling back down, smugly hugging her like a teddy bear.

“Great now I’ve got two childhood friends with zero impulse control,” Emma groaned, thinking of her similarly over enthusiastic friend Stephanie. She looked over at the other skeleton. “I take it back. You have to be a miracle worker to have kept this one alive for so long.”

Papyrus affectionately nuzzled the top of Emma’s head. “Contrary To Popular Belief I Can Take Care Of Myself.”

“Uhum… We just need to work on stranger danger or maybe get you a pair of glasses.” Emma grinned up at her tall friend, “not that I’m complaining. It made my dreams a lot more pleasant than they could have been, but just how bad has your eyesight gotten and why haven’t you gone to the Centre to get it fixed yet?” Concern entered her voice as she continued. “At least let someone look at your teeth. I know they still are causing you pain.”

“What?” Axe growled coming out of his stunned reverie.

“Didn’t you know about your brother’s jaw?”

“No, the other bit about getting him fixed.”

“Err… The Centre? You know that place specifically built to help monsters adjust to life on the surface.”

“What?” Axe could feel his anger rising. Those bastards, had they kept him from getting the help his brother needed?

“Umm… Yeah since you guys can’t exactly go to our doctors, they put a state of the art medical facility in it. I’ve seen monsters with gold teeth… Actually two of the bar flys have them and I know Grillby wears glasses. So there should be someone there that can help Papyrus.”

 **“I’M GOING TO KILL THOSE FUCKING BASTARDS!”** Axe roared before disappearing from the room.

“Oh Stars, We Better Go After Him,” Papyrus said, his voice filled with concern, as he released Emma from his lap. Getting up he headed over to Dust who was putting his shoes back on. “Emma Will You Be Alright?”

“Yes go before he does something you’ll regret.”

Dust having finished putting on his shoes got up and walked over to Emma. “Really like the one of Stretch, you might want to add the wind chimes to your collection,” he said as he pressed the sketchbook into her hands. “Well, this has been fun, but we better get going.” 

With that said Dust grabbed hold of Papyrus’ arm and the pair disappeared.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well here's another chapter. Still working on the ruff for 5 so could be a while before the next one comes out. One advantage of this chaos is that my editor is trapped with me and can be bride into spell checking things for me.


	5. Chapter 5

The next day Emma left the house early to do her shopping for the week. She wanted to get it out of the way quickly so she could head over to Muffet’s to look for her hat. It felt really weird walking around without it. She just hoped that it had fallen off at the beginning of all the madness yesterday, otherwise she might never see it again.

Reaching the supermarket Emma got a shopping cart and put her small two-wheeled trolley bag on the back. Next, she pulled out her shopping list. It was quite short with just the bare essentials that she needed to get through the week. As she started down the first aisle she found herself wishing that she could do more than just survive on her weekly budget. It had felt so nice to treat Papyrus yesterday, even if it made things a little more difficult for her in the coming week. It was just a shame that neither of them actually got to eat any of Muffet’s incredible pastries, thanks to that stupid bar fly.

As Emma put the last item from her list into the cart and headed towards the checkout, she thought about what she had learned from the skeletons yesterday. It still felt a little bit strange to suddenly share childhood memories with a brand new friend, but it did make sense of why she felt so comfortable around Papyrus. There was only one other person left that made Emma feel this way, and that was Stephanie.

They had met at lower school and they had been friends ever since. Steph, like all people in Emma’s life, was taller than her by a good few inches. She had a role-poly body which made her look a bit like a happy go lucky marshmallow. This went well with the short ginger hair that framed her round face, chocolate brown eyes that danced with hidden mischief and a mouth always ready to quirk up into a big grin.

After paying for her groceries, Emma headed over to a quiet spot near the front of the store to put her shopping away. As she was doing this, something occurred to her which made Emma stop in her tracks and fight back a groan. She was going to have to call Steph and tell her all about the assault she had been involved in.

Normally Emma would not hesitate to tell her friend anything, but Steph's reactions to bad things involving her friends were quite extreme. Emma really wasn’t sure if she could cope with the inevitable house invasion by her concerned friend right now. Maybe she would chicken out this one time and leave a message for her on Facebook (it normally took Steph a couple of days to reply to any post Emma put up), or she could text her when her friend was at work and wait for the inevitable explosion when she read it. But that was a problem for when she got home. Right now Emma needed to head to Muffet’s to see if she could find her hat.

It was coming up 10 o’clock by the time she got to Muffet’s bakery. Emma winced as she looked at the shop, one of the beautiful gothic windows was boarded up. She had hoped that she’d imagined the sound of breaking glass yesterday. This was not going to improve Muffet’s mood, which meant Emma was most likely going to end up flat on her back, staring at the ceiling the moment she walked into the bakery.

“Oh well, might as well get it over with. At least I don’t have any breakables in my groceries this time.” Emma mumbled to herself as she pushed open the door and cautiously entered. Slowly she looked around as she walked further into the shop. She spotted Muffet in one of the booths near the back. She was talking to a pair of white dog monsters in guard uniforms, while some of the smaller spiders carried on working the till. For one glorious moment, Emma thought she had gotten away with it. Then she spotted him, Muffet’s pet, Muffin, asleep at the back of the bakery.

When he was asleep Muffin resembled his namesake, albeit a giant one (being about the same height as a great dane), with purple icing and sprinkles in a black casing. The only problem was looks could be deceiving. Emma groaned as she watched the sprinkles open up, turning into a myriad of black beady eyes. Ponderously the creature rose up onto eight tarantula style legs, that had been tucked under his body. After stretching himself out like a strange looking cat with far too many legs, Muffin sniffed the air and locked his many eyes on to Emma. Giving off an excited barking sound the mutant beast charged across the shop straight at the girl.

Emma barely managed to move her shopping out of the way and utter a plaintive, “not again,” before she was enthusiastically knocked over and pinned down by Muffet’s strange pet. He then proceeded to try to drown her in saliva, by licking anything he could reach.

Emma really wished that Muffet wouldn’t bring her pet to work, because every time Muffin spotted Emma this would happen. She really didn’t know why he greeted her like this. He never hurt her, but she could do without his over enthusiastic welcomes.

As she struggled to fend off the mutant pastry a pair of black high heel shoes attached to slender light purple legs came into view, followed by a very familiar voice. “Dearie are you alright? He’s not normally like this. Muffin get off them this minute.”

Muffin gave Emma another couple of good licks, before reluctantly retreating to stand by his owner.

“You know that’s a lie Muffet. Your mutt always seems to think I need a bath.” Emma said with a shy little smile. Though she had known the spider lady for many years she still felt a bit self-conscious talking to her. After making sure she wasn’t going to step on anyone. She slowly, if a little clumsily, got back up and started to wipe the drool off herself.

“Oh, Emma dearie, I’m so glad you’re alright.” Muffet cried, pulling the little human close.

“Um, why wouldn’t I be? Aside from the occasional case of concussion and attempted drowning, that mutt of yours does no harm.” Emma’s words came out slightly muffled as Muffet had not released her yet.

“Excuse me Muffet, but is this the young lady from the incident yesterday?” Came a voice from behind them.

“Yes,” turning around Muffet kept one hand lightly on the girl’s shoulder as she addressed the two dog monsters. “This is Emma.”

“Um hi,” Emma smiled nervously at the pair. “Sorry for any trouble I caused yesterday.”

“We’re just glad that you’re alright. There were fears that you might have been abducted,” said the nearer of the two guard monsters smiling down at the girl.

“Abducted?” Blinking, Emma realised that the speaker was actually a female. It was hard to tell with a casual glance since the pair were practically identical.

Both of them had long floppy ears, dark eyes and rounded muzzles with cute button noses. It was only when you looked at their bodies that the differences between them became apparent.

“My name is Dogaressa and this is my husband Dogamy, we’re members of the Snowdin K-9 unit. If you wouldn’t mind could you give us your account of the events yesterday so we can finish our report and be on our way?”

“Oh, yes of course.”

“Come along dearies, we might as well be comfortable while having this conversation,” said Muffet as she gently steered Emma into a seat in one of the booths at the back of the shop. As they were doing this some of the smaller spiders picked up Emma’s shopping and moved it out of the way leaving Muffin standing guard over it.

Muffet smiled as she slid a small treat in front of Emma as an apology for Muffin’s behaviour and then sat down next to her. The dog monsters took the seats opposite them. As Emma turned to thank the spider lady, her scar caught the light making it glitter.

Dogamy blinked. “Wait, are you the young pup that was attacked on Monday?”

“Um yes, how did you know?”

“It’s that scar of yours. You must admit it’s quite unique.” Dogamy said pointing at the scar.

“My scar?” Emma asked, a startled look on her face as her hand unconsciously moved to touch it.

Dogaressa gave her husband a stern look, before turning to the human. “Please don’t mind my husband. The Captain mentioned that you had a Dust scar and it’s been all anyone can talk about in the break room. We all grew up on Gerson’s stories of the war and here you are, a little living piece of our history.” An apologetic smile spread across her face as she spoke.

“It’s alright, I guess I’m more used to people commenting on my hat, not this,” Emma said tapping the scar. She turned to the spider monster next to her. “Speaking of my hat, Muffet, I lost it in all that chaos yesterday. Please tell me you have it?”

“Oh you and that hat,” said Muffet sighing in exasperation as she looked down at her small friend.

“It’s my favourite,” Emma said in a plaintive voice.

Muffet rolled her many eyes heavenward. “Yes dearie, I have it. I was going to give it to the guard so they could try and track you, but since you're safe I guess you can have it back.” With a wave of several of her hands, a group of the little spiders dashed off to retrieve the hat.

“Thanks,” Emma smiled at Muffet before turning her attention back to the two Guards. “Um, sorry about that. Alright, shall we get started? So what do you want to know?”

“If you could give us your account of the events that transpired here yesterday, for the records please,” Dogaressa asked, as her husband got out a notebook.

Emma quickly and succinctly recounted the events that lead up to Papyrus fleeing the shop with her yesterday. She was still quite upset with the other skeleton for his unwarranted attack on her new friend. She also hoped that it had been that stupid orange idiot’s fault that Muffet’s window had got broken. The spider monster was almost as good at holding a grudge as a celt when something interfered with her business.

Emma was brought out of her thoughts when Dogaressa spoke again. “Thank you, Miss, that should be everything we need, unless you have the contact details for your friend?”

Emma shook her head. “No sorry, but you should have.”

“Oh?” Dogamy said, looking up from his notes.

“Um yes, you see he is the other victim of the assault on Monday. We ran into each other on Tuesday and decided to meet up yesterday so we could get to know each other.”

After jotting this new information down the husband and wife team got ready to leave. Thanking Emma for her help, the pair left the shop.

Muffet, having escorted the guards to the door, came back to the booth and slid into the seat opposite the little human. “Emma, why did me asking about your Mother upset you so much yesterday? I saw that your friend had to comfort you.” She said with concern.

  
Emma stopped picking at the treat in front of her to look at the spider. “Because Mum died at the beginning of the year.” The words still hurt to say, but at least today she had more time to prepare herself for this question. “It’s why I haven’t been around for a while. I’ve been trying to sort out the mess that is Mum’s estate.”

“Oh dearie, I’m so sorry,” Muffet said, as she brought a pair of hands up to her mouth in shock.

“Hey, at least she's out of pain and back with the rest of the family,” Emma said with a sad smile.

“Do you have any family left to help you through this?”

“Does a cat count?” replied Emma dryly.

“Dearie,” said Muffet reproachfully.

“I’ll be alright Muffet. My friends have been helping sort through stuff and I’ve been getting help from Citizens Advice with the legal bits. Okay, it’s a little weird being on my own for the first time in my life, but I’m coping.”

A look of sympathetic concern spread across Muffet’s face as she gazed at the small human sitting opposite her. The girl sat hunched up, picking at the sweet treat in front of her. This was not the Emma she knew.

Muffet still remembered the first time she had met the girl. The bakery had only been open for a few days when Emma and her mother Rosemary had walked in. The look of wonder and sheer joy on the girl’s face, coupled with her mother’s amusement at the way Emma kept pointing out little details of the decor, had instantly endeared the pair to her. But it was their open and friendly manner, and the fact that they weren’t scared of spiders, that had led to a long and lasting friendship.

A chorus of chittery laughter from tiny spiders brought Muffet back to the present. A soft chuckle escaped from Emma as she looked to where the sound was coming from. “Well, there’s a sight you don’t see every day. Spiders doing an impression of cockroaches.”

Muffet turned towards the sound as well. Only to find some of her smaller kin collapsed on the floor, on their backs, legs in the air, laughing their little heads off near an opened book.

“Alright you little horrors, how did you get your hands on that? I had it safely stowed away in my bag.” Emma asked as she got up to carefully retrieve her sketchbook from the chortling spiders.

“They must have come across it when they were putting away your purchases from yesterday. And you know how curious those little rascals can be dearie.” Muffet said waving one hand in airy dismissal.

“Oh erum… Thank you ... I would have understood if you wanted to put the money I spent towards repairing your window…”

“Stop right there dearie. You are not responsible for my window. It was that skeleton Stretch that broke it, and it will be from his hide that I will extract my price. An old friend of my sister’s or not.” A menacing gleam entered Muffet’s eyes as she spoke.

Emma suppressed a shudder, she could almost feel sorry for the guy. Almost, but not enough to risk upsetting Muffet. Especially after he attacked Papyrus for no reason.

“If you’re sure,” Emma said shyly.

“Yes dearie, I’m sure. Now come sit down and let’s see what has got the little ones so stirred up.” Muffet said, patting the seat next to her.

Reluctantly Emma handed over her sketchbook and slid onto the seat. The still happily chittering spiders scrambled up onto the table and started flicking through the book. Emma once again found herself wishing she could understand what the little ones were saying, as they excitedly pointed out one of the images. This was going to be embarrassing; she just hoped Muffet would understand.

“Oh my, is that me? What on earth am I doing to Stretch?”

Emma could feel a blush creeping up over her cheeks as she looked down at the image in front of her. The picture took up a whole side of A4, it was a cartoon of Muffet angrily tapping her foot with her arms crossed, looking up at the skeleton from yesterday. He was hanging upside down, caught in a spider’s web and in addition to his signature orange hoodie, Emma had added a pair of fly wings on his back and some antenna to his skull. The only other thing in the picture was a group of the little spiders clustered around Muffet holding tiny weapons, waiting for their chance at the skeleton. “Sorry, I was a little mad when I did that. I did not mean any disrespect by it… It just felt right at the time, what with the nickname I have for him.”

“Oh, what name would that be dearie?”

“Bar fly” Emma could feel her blush deepening as she continued. “You see the only place I’ve seen him before is hanging around the bar at Grillby’s. He’s one of a bunch of skeletons that hang around the bar like … well, a bunch of flies.”

“Well, that explains the image.”

“Sorry again, it’s just how I vent my frustrations when I can’t find someone to talk to.”

“Oh?”

“Cats make good listeners but are terrible conversationalists. It’s times like this I really miss Mum, she would have sat down next to me and come up with a 100 different things we could do to the guy. She’d have me laughing so hard by the end of it, I would’ve forgotten what upset me in the first place.” Emma said with a little forlorn smile touching her lips.

Muffet looked over at the still faintly blushing human next to her. “Yes, I could see Rosemary doing that. The pair of you did share a rather wicked sense of humour.” Fondness and sorrow warring in her voice as she spoke.

“I had to get it from someone,” Emma said, shrugging her shoulders.

Muffet looked back down at the sketchbook. “So if this is your way of venting your frustrations, what did this other skeleton do to upset you, dearie?” She asked with a mischievous gleam in her eyes. “You know I thought I knew all the skeletons at least by sight, but I don’t recognise that one,” Muffet commented as she examined the myriad of cartoons in front of her.

“Oh, that’s Axe, he's the older brother of the guy I was with yesterday.” Emma smiled as she cast her eyes over some of her favourite recent drawings. She had really gone to town on him. Everything from having him chased by dogs, to using his empty head for a flower pot, and of course her personal favourite for bullies using a catapult to throw him off a cliff. “And as for what he did, I don’t really know where to start, it’s been a week.” She said wearily.

“Well dearie, why don’t we start with what the guards said about you being attacked and go from there.”

“Yeah, I guess that’s the best place to start, everything does sorta relate back to it. God, so much has happened since then. I really haven’t had a chance to sit down and sort through how I feel about it all. There are also some bits I still don’t really understand. It’s actually why I have my sketchbook with me, I normally don’t bring it with me when I do my shopping.” Seeing the curious look on Muffet’s face, Emma continued with her explanation. “You see there is this park on my way home. After I finished here I was going to go sit down in it and try to sort my head out. You know how I am with writing things, I just find it easier to sort my thoughts out by drawing.”

“Well, let’s see what we can sort out together dearie.”

That was it, with those simple words a dam within Emma broke and it all came pouring out. The fear and pain she had suffered during the attack. Her desire not to watch someone else die again. The total weirdness and confusion of waking up in hospital covered in silver scars. That first violent encounter with the skeleton brothers. Meeting up with Papyrus yesterday. Then ending up in another confrontation with Axe that culminated in him accusing her of rape. And finally, the revelation of the soul touching. With the resulting strange feeling of comfort and familiarity she got from Papyrus, that warred with the uncertainty she still felt.

When Emma finished speaking she buried her head in her arms with a groan. She really hadn’t meant to go into such detail when she recounted the events of the last few days to Muffet. Normally Emma would have edited what she told her or tried to put a positive spin on it so she wouldn’t worry her friend. Before, the only person she would have told everything to without holding anything back was her Mum, but she was gone and Muffet was here.

Muffet looked down at the girl next to her as she tried to absorb the information she had just received. Emma looked so small and fragile sitting there that it was hard to remember that she was an adult. Muffet found herself having to fight the urge to pick Emma up and comfort her like the small child she resembled at the moment. In the end, she settled for placing one hand on her friend’s head and soothingly stroking her silky auburn hair. “You’ve really been through a lot haven’t you dearie?” She said gently.

A little ironic chuckle escaped from between Emma’s arms as her muffled voice replied. “Yeah, you could say that. So are you going to tell me how stupid I am for wanting to give Axe another chance?”

Muffet observed her friend for a couple of moments, before making some gestures with her free hands that her smaller kin went about fulfilling. The next thing Emma knew was Muffet’s gentle touch being replaced by a familiar weight. Raising her head up she found her hat on her head and a plate of doughnuts in front of her with a spider cider next to it.

“No dearie, that’s just who you are. Even though Muffin keeps knocking you over. You just forgive him. You do tend to give people the benefit of the doubt, whether they deserve it or not.” Muffet said with a kind smile on her face. “Now why don’t you eat these treats and let’s see what we can sort out.”

“You don’t have to Muffet, I’ve already taken up too much of your time as it is. I know you have got this shop to run.”

“My kin can manage the shop for now. I may not be your mother, but I am your friend and I want to be there for you if you will let me.”

“Umm…” Emma looked away uncertainly. She wanted to talk, but her insecurities about burdening others began to rise within her.

“Dearie, you’ve been through so much in a short space of time, you really shouldn’t keep it all bottled up. If not me, then someone else, but you should really talk about it.” Muffet said with concern.

“Yeah, you’re right Muffet, it’s just that... the bit that’s bothering me in all this is something I’m not sure you’ll be comfortable talking about.”

“Let me be the judge of that dearie.”

“It’s this whole soul-touching thing that’s so confusing.”

“Not the assault or the way those skeletons kept attacking you?”

“Yeah, you would think that, but I haven’t had a single flashback, not even a bad dream about what those men did to me. It’s like Papyrus’ memories have drowned out the other bad stuff.” Emma sighed as she took off her hat and put it on the table. “As for the skeletons, I know I should be terrified of them. They’ve stalked and attacked me, God they’ve even invaded my home. Well, the two older ones have, Papyrus has always been a complete gentleman. And that’s just it, I’m not scared of them. I’m mad at Axe hence the drawings. I’m not even too bothered by the stuff Dust did. I know logically I should be asking the police or the guard to protect me from these violent skeletons, but some stupid part of me wants to trust them.” Emma looked over at Muffet with worry and confusion clearly visible on her face. “That’s what really bothering me, how much of what I’m feeling is me and how much is stuff from Papyrus’ memories?”

Muffet’s face turned thoughtful as she answered. “Though I’ve never been in a serious enough relationship to have done it myself. I can tell you this, what you are feeling is all you.” She held up a hand as Emma opened her mouth to speak. “Now let me finish dearie. What you got from that other soul was just information, what you do with that information is totally up to you. There is a reason we monsters say to trust your soul for it can not lie to you, it is the truest part of you. If it is saying to trust them, then it must have seen something in those memories it believes in.” Muffet smiled and her voice became softer as she continued. “In a very real sense, you now know this skeleton better than anyone else on this planet. Just remember when dealing with his brothers, that you have only got what this Papyrus knows about them to go on. It’s no different from me telling you something about one of my sisters, alright dearie?”

“Yes, I’ll keep that in mind.” Emma smiled as she reached for a doughnut. “Thanks, Muffet, that actually helps a lot.” Her smile turned rueful with her next words. “Still have no idea how we did it, but at least I now understand it a bit better.”

Muffet furrowed her brows as her voice became more contemplative. “Yes, that is the strangest thing about all this. Soul touching is a very deliberate act, there should be no way for someone to do it accidentally, especially not a human. Since as a species you can no longer access your souls.”

“Hey don’t look at me, they just told me it happened. They didn’t explain how, but if I’m right with my guess of _when_ it happened, neither of us were in any condition to do anything.” Emma said, shrugging her shoulders before finishing the doughnut she was holding.

“Oh, and when would that be dearie?”

“Around the time of the assault on Monday or just after it. I had my first weird dream in the hospital later that same day.”

“That’s the same incident you got that scar isn’t it dearie?”

“Yeah it is, but I got a new friend out of it and an interesting story to tell my folks the next time I see them. So it’s not too bad.”

Sorrow filled Muffet’s face, but before she could say anything Emma started talking again. “Before you say it. I know that they are dead and I won’t be seeing them for a really long time. I may not be the most religious person around, but I do believe that one day I will see them again. So when I do, I want to have lots of things to tell them. They don’t have to be big or important things. It could be something as simple as ‘I got a job Mum’, or ‘I didn’t let my shyness and fear get the better of me and I made a new friend’. I just want to have enough stuff so that we can have a really good conversation the next time I see them... Silly huh?”

Muffet smiled softly down at her little friend. “No dearie, it’s not silly, it’s actually very sweet.” Her smile grew wider as she continued, “and I believe I have the perfect thing to add to the list.”

“Oh?”

“Well, I was going to ask you to let me make a copy of that wonderful picture of me and Stretch…”

“Youu… really like it?”

“Yes dearie, I really do. So let’s discuss you doing an enlarged version of it for the shop wall.”

“Seriously?” Emma could feel her blush returning with a vengeance as she looked at her friend. “It’s just a silly cartoon…”

“That I think will look good on the wall. Now shall we discuss payment?”

“Payment?” Emma squeaked.

“Yes payment, I am not asking you to do it for free dearie.” Muffet raised a couple of hands to forestall the argument she could see brewing on her friend’s face. “Now I know you won’t accept my money, but if I remember rightly you told the guards that the lovely blouse you were wearing yesterday was ruined. So why don’t I get my sister to make you a new one?”

“Muffet?” Emma said queryingly.

“Yes, dearie?”

“Last time I checked you had four sisters, each from a different cavern, or is it tribe? I always get confused. And only one of them works with you, so which one are we talking about?”

“It’s tribe dearie, and I was thinking Poison would be the perfect one to help us.”

“ _That’s right they’re called tribes_ ,” Emma thought to herself, as she remembered when the first of these tribes had appeared.

A year or two after the initial appearance of monsters on the surface, another group of monsters appeared from under the same mountains. They had been trapped in a different cavern to the original monsters and had developed their own unique customs and traditions over the centuries. Then a few short months later yet another group of monsters had emerged from the mountains, again with its own distinctive culture. The leaders of the different groups got together and decided that each cavern would be treated as its own tribe. The ruler of the first group (or as they became known the Classic Tribe) would be in overall charge, but he would have advisers from the other tribes. Over the years two more tribes had emerged and now there was a Royal Council made up of all the different tribal leaders.

The tribe a monster belonged to depended on which cavern they had been trapped in. So you had families like Muffet’s who had been separated from each other when they were imprisoned underground. This meant that each of Muffet’s sisters now belonged to a different tribe.

Thinking of Muffet’s sisters, Emma realised something. “Wait, Muffet, isn’t Poison one of the owners of the Emporium that really posh boutique in town?”

“Yes, dearie.”

“That’s way too expensive, my top only cost me £45. The stuff in the Emporium starts at about £70 and just goes up from there. My work isn’t worth that much.”

“Oh, pish posh dearie. Your work is definitely worth it. Besides, you’re forgetting that I get a family discount there. Also, Poison may well do it for free when I present her with that lovely little mystery you gave me.”

“Um, what mystery would that be?”

“How could someone accidentally touch their soul to another one? Poison is just going to love trying to find out how you managed to do that. With the added benefit that we will get the answer to that little riddle ourselves when she sorts it out.” Said Muffet merrily.

A rueful laugh escaped from Emma as she replied. “Alright, Muffet you win. So just how big do you want it?”

As the pair discussed the painting and Emma finished off her snack, a group of the smaller spiders picked up the sketchbook and stored it back away in her little trolley. They also added some extra treats for their favourite human.

After Emma finished making arrangements for the painting she lingered to talk with Muffet for a while. In the end, over an hour had passed by the time the pair finished chatting and Emma started for home.

Muffet watched the young human from the doorway of the bakery as she disappeared into the distance. As she watched she made a silent promise to her old friend that she would watch over her daughter in her place.

It was nearly 12 noon by the time Emma struggled up the front path to her door. The main reason for her trouble was the rather large canvas she was now carrying at the same time as trying to pull her little trolley bag. Maybe it had been a mistake to stop off on the way home to buy what she needed for the painting, but she really wanted to get started on it.

After a bit of juggling, Emma managed to get hold of her house key and get herself, as well as everything else, inside. Out of habit, she called out, “I’m home.”

Only to get the surprise of her life when a familiar voice replied. “Oh, Welcome Home Little Morsel.”

Emma followed the sound to find Papyrus standing by the open fridge in her kitchen. “Pap you know you’re always welcome here, but could you let me fill the fridge before you raid it?” She gently teased her towering friend.

“Oh, Um… I Was Actually Filling It.” Papyrus said nervously, fiddling with his gloves while a blush covered his cheekbones.

“Pap…”

“It Is Just… You Had So Little Food Yesterday…” Papyrus said plaintively. He walked over and knelt in front of his friend so he could see her better. “It Worried Me… I Had To Do Something.” Emma could plainly see concern warring with embarrassment on his face as he looked at her.

She smiled softly, gathering Papyrus to her in a gentle embrace. “Thank you Pap and I’m sorry I worried you.” A little chuckle escaped from her before she continued. “I guess you didn’t get all my memories... or you forgot.”

“And What Pray Tell Am I Forgetting?” Papyrus asked as he repositioned himself into a more comfortable sitting position with Emma once more safely in his arms.

A little surprised to find herself once again in this position, it took Emma a few moments to gather her scattered thoughts enough to answer him. “That since I don’t get a lot of money coming in I tend to budget on a weekly basis, which means I tend to shop on a weekly basis too. Since I shop on a Thursday, Wednesday is the worst day to look in my cupboards.”

“Oh, I See.”

Papyrus went to nuzzle Emma’s head only to be stopped by her hat. “I See You Found It Then.” He said as he removed it so he could finish what he started.

“Yeah, luckily for me Muffet found it.”

After that, the pair lapsed into silence each taking comfort from the other’s presence. While they were doing this Papyrus tried to sort through the memories and impressions he had gotten from his friend.

Even remembering that Emma was basically okay on her limited budget, Papyrus could not shake his fears from yesterday. Between the state of her soul and her bare cupboards, it just scared him. Unconsciously he tightened his hold on her as if to make sure she was still there. Words escaped from deep within his soul, filled with old terrors and long-forgotten sorrows. “Please do not leave me,” Papyrus whispered as he buried his head into her shoulder.

“Oh, Pap” Emma carefully moved in the shaking skeleton’s grasp so that she could hug him back. A memory crept to the surface, of course this would scare him. How many times had the poor guy watched as those around him died? She may not have lost as many as him, but Emma knew this pain and fear all too well. “Shh, it will be alright, I have no intentions of going anywhere.” She whispered softly as she did her best to comfort her distraught friend.

“No, but he is,” came a tired growl from next to them. Turning the pair found Axe slumped against one of the kitchen counters.

Disregarding the little human in his brother’s arms, Axe addressed Papyrus directly. “Found a couple of places that look possible up in the mountains, just waiting on Dust and we can get going. So finish whatever ya doing here, cause we ain’t taking that snack with us.”

“Brother Are You Sure That There Is Not Something Else We Could Do?” Papyrus pleaded as he reluctantly stood. He continued to hug Emma close like a child seeking comfort from a favourite cuddly. “Perhaps We Can Talk With Dings Or Even Gaster, I Am Sure They Could Sort All This Out.”

Axe wearily scrubbed at his skull as he shook his head. “Pap, Dings may have sent ya on that errand, but that does not mean that he trusts or cares about us. None of them do, if they did they would have told us about this Centre thing. So unless you want Dust to live up to the name they gave him. This is our best option.”

“May have to go with that plan anyway. They’re combing the woods looking for us.” Dust’s tired voice came from the doorway.

Papyrus whimpered, hugging Emma closer. He really did not want anyone else to get hurt. Stars, the surface was meant to be a fresh start for them, why wouldn’t they just let them have it?

Emma could feel the distress coming off the skeleton behind her, it was obvious that he did not like either of these options. It hurt to see him like this, especially when she could give him a third option. The only problem was that if she was going to do this it would have to be for all three skeletons. Emma knew that Papyrus would never leave his brothers behind. So the real question was did she want to give this chance to Axe after everything he had done to her? Sighing, Emma closed her eyes blocking out the muttered conversation between the two older skeletons as she tried to figure out what would be best for everyone.

The plan Axe suggested sounded like they would end up living much as they had underground, with them taking over some out of the way place and living off the land. It would be lonely for Papyrus and make it harder for him to get the help he needed. Also, it sounded like the rest of his household wouldn’t leave them alone and would come hunting for them.

Then there was Dust’s plan, which sounded like it involved mass murder. In the best-case scenario, they would end up on the run from the law. Worst case they would end up in jail or dead. Neither of these scenarios would really help anyone.

Opening her eyes Emma looked at the two exhausted skeletons in front of her and found she couldn’t do it, she couldn’t leave them like this. She had to at least give them another option. If they refused okay, but at least she had tried.

Taking a deep breath to steady herself Emma raised her voice to be heard over the others. “I might have a solution to your problem that doesn’t end up with you on the run from the law, or living like a hobo in the mountains.”

“What?” Axe growled, glaring tiredly at the small human.

“You could stay here.” Seeing the suspicious glare Axe was still directing at her, Emma sighed and tapped Papyrus' arm. “Down please Pap.”

“Oh, Sorry” Papyrus apologised as he gently released his friend and restored her to a standing position.

Emma smiled up at her friend before turning her attention back to the other skeletons. With a serious expression on her face, she said “look, this house has five bedrooms. I’m using one and another one got turned into a craft room, but that still leaves three that aren’t being used.” She bit back another sigh as she watched Axe’s face fall into more stubborn lines. “I know there are some issues we would have to work out… Look, it’s about lunchtime, why don’t I get us something to eat and we’ll go into the living room and discuss this. If you still don’t like the idea then fine. It will also give you time to think about your other options and a bit of a rest. No offence, but you two look more dead than normal.”

“Emma Could You Not,” Papyrus groaned.

“What? I don’t know what happened between you and the rest of your household, but it’s pretty obvious that they're both exhausted. I could've gone with the obvious pun, but I went with the truth instead.”

“Alright, I’ll bite what’s the pun?” Axe asked, crossing his arms as his face lost some of its stubbornness to be replaced with curiosity.

“Emma Please Do Not Encourage Them,” Papyrus groaned.

“Sorry Pap, he did ask. The first one I thought of is that you two look _bone tired_. I can think of a few more, but that’s the most obvious one.”

“Oh, what other ones ya got?” Axe asked a little grin starting to spread across his face.

Just as Emma was about to reply she found herself back in Papyrus’ arms with one gloved hand firmly over her mouth, as he cried. “NO, WE ARE NOT DOING THIS!! Brother You And Dust Go Sit Down This Minute! I Will Help Emma Prepare Lunch Then We Will Join You.”

“Come on Paps, she did some real _rib-tickling_ cartoons yesterday. I bet she could come up with a ton of puns...a _skele-ton_.” Dust said with a shit-eating grin on his face.

“NO! NO PUNS!! See What You Have Done!” Papyrus said, glaring down at the little human, who fluttered her eyelashes at him innocently.

“When are we gonna eat? I’m gonna _pasta-way_ here without some food soon. See, I’m nothing but _bones_ already.” Axe playfully whined as he pulled his top taut so you could see his ribs.

“Sans No,” Papyrus groaned.

“Sans yes.” The pair of shorter skeletons chortled with matching grins on their faces.

“Just Go Sit Down Already,” Papyrus said dramatically pointing towards the door. Nearly dropping Emma in the process. “AND NO MORE PUNS!”

“Sure Bro,” Axe called back as the pair left the Kitchen.

“Did You Have To Do That?” Papyrus asked as he released his friend.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to start a pun war. I just wanted him to relax enough that he might actually think about what I’m suggesting.”

“However Much I Hate To Admit It, It Was The Right Thing To Do. Now How About We Get Started On Lunch?” Papyrus asked as he headed towards the cupboards.

“Yeah lets, so what do you think we should make?”

“Mmm...Sandwiches And Perhaps Some Other Light Finger Foods Should Do.”

“Sounds good… guess I better put my shopping away as well.” Emma said as she opened up her bag to find that there was way more stuff in it than there should be. “That sneaky spider, I hope she doesn’t expect me to pay for all that, I’m already doing her a painting.”

Papyrus looked up from what he was doing. “Oh, And What Has Muffet Done?”

“Take a look for yourself, that’s way more than I bought,” Emma said gesturing at the small trolley bag.

Papyrus walked over and looked at the many treats the spider had given his friend. A smile spread across his jagged teeth as he carefully removed each item from the bag and put it on the counter. “Oh My, Your Friend’s Generosity Will Certainly Make The Preparations For Lunch Much Simpler.”

“Yeah, I just hope she doesn’t want me to pay for all of that.” Emma murmured quietly as she watched the growing mound of sweet pastry delicacies in stunned disbelief.

Papyrus looked over his friend quizzically. “Is It So Hard To Believe Your Friend Wanted To Treat You? You Have Had Quite A Rough Week So Far.”

“Yeah, it’s just… So much.” Emma said, vaguely gesturing at the still growing mound.

“All The More For Us To Share. Why Not Start On The Sandwiches While I Finish Sorting This Out?” Papyrus suggested as he pulled out two big bottles of spider cider from the trolley.

“Okay,” Emma replied.

As the pair went about their separate tasks they once more lapsed into companionable silence. It seemed to take no time at all for them to get lunch and ferry it through to the front room. Emma got out some small tables to put everything on, while Papyrus handed out plates and cutlery. In no time at all the group had settled down to enjoy the food.

Axe watched the girl as she moved about the room before settling down on the sofa next to Papyrus. The pair seemed happy and comfortable with each other, smiling and chatting as they ate their food together. Axe could not remember the last time he had seen his brother this happy. It was very tempting to take the girl’s offer just for that, but could he trust her not to screw them over like the others had? On instinct, he tried to ‘check’ her soul once more, only to come up with nothing yet again.

Papyrus noticed Emma massaging her chest while trying to hide a wince. Angrily he glared over at his sibling. “Brother Stop That At Once, You Are Hurting Her. And After She Has Been Kind Enough To Offer Us A Place To Stay.”

“Yeah, but why is she offering? What’s in it for her?” Axe growled as he continued to glare at the little human.

Emma rolled her eyes heavenwards. “Nothing, I gain nothing by helping you. It’ll actually make my life harder if we can’t sort out the one major problem I can see.”

“Yeah, and what’s that?” Axe sneered.

“Food.”

A stunned silence filled the room.

“Look, I don’t have a lot of money… It’s enough to feed me, my cat and keep the lights on, but I can’t figure out how to make it stretch to feed all of us. So if you are going to stay here we’re going to have to figure something out.” Emma hated to admit how tight money was right now, but she hated the look of pity on peoples faces more. So she looked down at her plate and fell silent.

Axe blinked, “that’s it?” The kid was worried about how she was going to feed them. She sounded just like his brother.

“Yes, that’s it. I think everything else can be handled by the house rules. Though we might have to add one or two new ones to be on the safe side.”

“Like what?” Axe asked.

“Like no hurting my friends, however annoying you find them.”

“That Sounds Reasonable, As Long As It Applies To My Friends Too,” said Papyrus, placing a protective arm around Emma while glaring at Axe.

“Fine, anything else?” Axe muttered.

“Just standard house stuff, like if you make a mess you tidy it up.”

“You might as well just give in now Axe. You know Pap will just whine and nag until you do what he wants anyway.” Dust piped up from his seat.

“I Do Not Whine!” Papyrus pouted.

Two sets of tired eye lights wearily regarded the tall skeleton with a look that spoke volumes.

“Sorry to break up this beautiful family moment, but we still need to discuss what we are going to do about food,” Emma interjected quietly.

Papyrus smiled down at his little friend. “Do Not Worry We Have Plenty Of Gold Leftover From Our Time Underground So Food Should Be No Problem.”

Emma sighed and shook her head. “That’s not going to work, the shops up here won’t accept monster currency. You’ll need to get it converted and to do that you will need two things that I don’t think you have.”

“What’s that then?” Axe asked.

“Some form of identification and a bank account to put your money in. I take it your so-called family didn’t bother to help sort that out either, did they?”

“No, they fucking didn’t. Dust we’re going with your plan. Papyrus you stay here. Tonight when their asleep we are going to dust the whole fucking lot of them.” Axe growled menacingly.

After Axe’s hostile words a tense silence fell across the group. As each thought over what he had said. Emma was the first one to break the silence. “You know that this won’t do any good. All you will accomplish is to bring the wrath of the law down on your head and how will that help anyone?”

The only response she got from the two short skeletons was an angry growl from Axe and an indifferent shrug from Dust.

“I get it, you're upset and those bastards most likely deserve everything you’ve got planned for them, but try for once to think of the consequences of your actions. This is not the Underground. There you could dust an entire household and the only reaction you’d get is some mild curiosity to see if there were any scraps left. Law enforcement is too well organised up here for that. Also, I didn’t take you for the merciful kind.”

Axe stared at the girl incredulously. “What part of this sounds merciful to you?”

“Two things really. One, killing them in their sleep is pretty gentle. Okay, I get it, you’re outnumbered so quick stealthy deaths are the best option, but that also makes for merciful deaths. You can’t make them suffer in their sleep. And second, why kill them at all? Once they’re dead, they’re dead, and you can’t make them suffer any move.”

“You seriously think dusting them is too good for them?” Axe asked, still staring at the girl.

“Well yeah, as far as I can tell they've been treating you like a bunch of mushrooms for god knows how long. Don’t you think they should suffer for it?” Emma inquired.

“Mushrooms?”

“Keeping you in the dark and feeding you shit. And you’re telling me a _fungi_ like you can’t come up with a more interesting way of making them pay?”

That got a small chuckle from the two tired skeletons.

Surprisingly, Papyrus didn’t groan at the pun, he was too caught up in his own thoughts to hear it. Emma’s offer was sounding better all the time. Not only could he make sure that his one and only friend was taken care of, but he knew she would do all she could to help them, just as his supposed new family should be doing. This could truly be the fresh start he had been longing for and, if Papyrus was honest with himself, the thought of getting some much deserved payback on the others was an added bonus. A positively evil grin spread across his crooked teeth. “Brother Do You Think It Would Be Possible To Flood Their House With Blue Snow?” Seeing the stunned look on Axe's face Papyrus chuckled darkly before continuing. “Do You Not Think It Would Be Hilarious To Make Those House Proud Skeletons Clean Up That Horrible Sticky Mess?”

“Well yeah, but Pap are ya sure you want to do this? Since we met them you’re the one that’s been preaching forbearance and not killing things anymore.” Axe asked curiously.

“Yes Brother, I Am. Meeting Emma Has Made Me Realise Just How Much We Have Been Missing Out On And I Am Tired Of Settling For What They Will Give Us.” Papyrus’ smile turned fond as he looked down at his friend. “With Emma, We Will Not Have To Settle. So A Little Harmless Fun With The Others, As Long As We All Agree That No One Is To Be Harmed In Our Little Endeavour, I See No Problem With It. Especially Since It Will Solve Our Friend’s Concern About Food.”

Axe was silent for a moment before he started to chuckle. “So that’s your plan, use them as our grocery store. Ya sure your little snack will be okay with us stealing stuff?”

Emma shrugged. “As long as you don’t do anything that will attract the attention of the guard or anyone else, I’m fine with it.” Seeing Axe’s raised bone ridge she sighed and continued. “Look, if we are going to get you guys sorted out we don’t need that sort of complication. Besides, I think it’s about time those jerks knew what it’s like to go without for a while, don’t you?”

Axe burst out laughing as the first genuine smile he’d had in a long time spread across his face. “Yeah, that they do. Alright kid, we’ll stay.”

“Okay then, I’ve got just one more question for you boys.”

“Yeah, what’s that then?”

“Once you’ve all finished eating what do you want to do first? Take a tour of the house or have me show you where the beds are so you can take a nap?”

“Nap!” The exhausted skeletons cried in unison.

Emma bit back a laugh as she replied. “Alright then, while you boys finish up, I’ll go make the beds up. I’ll come to get you once I’m done, okay?”

The skeletons nodded their agreement and went back to their lunch.

As Emma left the room and headed towards the stairs she stopped by an old photograph of her Mother. “I wonder what you would have made of all this?” She smiled to herself and a small chuckle escaped her. “I know one thing’s for sure, I’m going to have one heck of a story to tell you the next time we meet.”

Still softly laughing, Emma headed upstairs to get rooms ready for her new skeletal housemates.


	6. Chapter 6

It had been an interesting three weeks since the skeletons had moved in. It had taken a bit of time, but everyone had roughly settled into the new normal. That is not to say there weren’t some ups and downs in this new situation, like Dust's introduction to Emma’s cat Shadow.

It happened just after the boys finished retrieving the rest of their liberated supplies from their hiding place. Dust had collapsed on the sofa and promptly fallen asleep, while the other two wandered off to do something else. Unfortunately for him, his top rode up while he slept leaving a small gap. Shadow, upon finding the sleeping monster, and being the curious creature she was, investigated the dark, warm space and decided to take a nap in his ribcage. Emma found him a bit later desperately trying to get the cat out while being tickled to death from the inside out. Once she managed to stop laughing, she tried to help, but in the end had to go get Papyrus. Between them, they managed to hold down the struggling skeleton long enough for her to get the cat out. During this process, Emma experienced a weird sensation, like tiny static shocks that crawled up her arm. Emma soon forgot about this strange feeling, but three weeks later Dust was still avoiding Shadow.

Another memorable incident was when Emma’s childhood friend Stephanie had come to visit. Emma had been putting off the call for as long as she could. In the end, she had chickened out and P.M. her friend on Facebook, which a few days later led to an explosive phone call and a visit that same day. Steph had spent the first few minutes in the house switching between staring at the skeletons and staring at her friend. This continued until Emma rolled her eyes heavenwards and told Steph whatever joke she was going to make “DON’T” and informed the skeletons that though she may resemble a rump roast Steph was off the menu. She then dragged her friend upstairs to her room, only to have Stephanie question her sanity the moment they were alone. Okay, Emma had to admit from the outside letting three practical strangers into her home was very stupid, especially when they were of the opposite gender. It made her laugh because it was normally Emma giving this kind of talk to her friend. It was also very funny to see her friend trying to be all serious and mature for once. When Emma had finally stopped laughing, she did her best to explain what had happened between her and Papyrus, which ended up being good practice for when she told the rest of her friends the following Saturday.

That was the same week Emma finished the painting for Muffet. Papyrus had been kind enough to help Emma carry it to the bakery. When it was handed over she also gave the spider lady her ruined blouse, so that Poison had something to work off. When Muffet found out that Papyrus was staying with Emma, the spider monster had given the poor skeleton the 3rd degree, wanting to make sure he was a suitable companion for her little friend. It took over an hour, but by the end of it Papyrus had won her over and they were chatting like old friends.

It hadn’t surprised Emma one bit, with his sweet and gentlemanly manner Papyrus could win most people over. Though his nature did lead to a very polite argument every Saturday morning. It stemmed from the fact that Emma’s upbringing told her that if you had guests staying with you it was only polite to eat with them. Papyrus, on the other hand, believed that she should not deviate from her normal social activities, and therefore should go and have breakfast with her friends.

This little disagreement led to Emma’s current predicament. Having lost the argument with Papyrus yet again, her tall friend had ushered her out of the house too early. So now she found herself staring at the closed door of Grillby’s trying to decide what to do while waiting for the bar to open.

Emma looked down at her wrist to see how much time she had to play with. Only to find that she had forgotten to put her watch on again. “Well, that settles it, I can’t go anywhere when I don’t know how long I’ve got.” She murmured to herself, leaning back against the bar’s door. To keep herself occupied, she reached into her bag, took out her Kindle and started to read. This was an old habit of hers, if she couldn’t draw, she would read, and the quiet side street that the Grillby’s was on really didn’t have a lot to draw at this hour of the morning anyway.

Emma’s reading abruptly came to an end when the door behind her suddenly opened. As she fell backwards a pair of powerful hands seized her and pulled her through the doorway. She twisted and struggled in her captor’s grasp in a vain attempt to free herself as she was dragged through the bar. This proved futile, but she did get a good look at him.

He was a fire elemental, but not the one she was used to seeing. Though he seemed to be the same height and build as Grillby, his flames were much darker, more like a dying fire than the bright and cheerful flames of the elemental she knew. Still, there was something dreadfully familiar about the guy and it wasn’t the fact that he was wearing the bar’s standard uniform of a white shirt, black slacks with matching waistcoat.

Horror and panic gripped at Emma as the realisation hit her. She did know this monster or more precisely Papyrus did. This was the guy who used to run the bar in the village Papyrus grew up in. Fear pulled at her senses as she increased her desperate struggles for freedom. She knew if she didn’t do something fast she would end up being the breakfast special.

For one glorious moment, Emma thought she was safe, as her smouldering top tore freeing her from his burning grip. Then, as she stumbled away from her captor he was tackled to the ground by another fire elemental. This one was a deep purple colour and as the pair wrestled across the floor, she tried to put some distance between herself and the combatants. But then a terrible burning sensation enclosed around her wrist putting an end to her bid for freedom.

Emma lost sight of the purple elemental as she was wrenched off her feet and dragged level with the dark monster’s face. A deranged smile spread across his face as he rasped out. “Mmmeeat.”

As a fiery hand closed around Emma’s throat, she desperately tried to get her panicked brain to remember something, anything that might snap the elemental back to his senses. Words tumbled out of her mouth in a croaky frenzy, as the life was choked out of her. “For fuck’s sake Grillby, you’re on the surface! … There’s FOOD! … Put me down and I’ll get you some!”

“Ffoood?”

“Yes FOOD!” Emma gasped out as she clawed at his burning arm. “Come on big guy put me down… Papyrus would be so mad if he saw this.”

“Pa-py-rus?”

“Yes, Papyrus... Sans’ little brother… You remember them right?... I’m THEIRS”

“Ssanss?”

“Yes, Sans… The Butcher… I’m his… Now... Put... Me... Down!”

“Butcherrr? Food?” The fiery monster asked, blinking as he slowly put down the small human.

“Yes, Sans, the same bonehead that got so drunk he streaked naked around Snowdin. Remember? It took Pap most of the day to catch him?”

A dry chuckle filled with the faint sound of crackling emerged from the elemental.

“There, that’s better,” Emma said softly. Smiling up at the giant elemental she gently took his hand and started towards the kitchen. “Now let’s find you something to eat.”

Spotting the purple fire monster sneaking up behind them, she tried to catch his attention. Once Emma was sure she had it, she slowly shook her head. The elemental’s eyes narrowed behind his glasses for a moment, before he curtly nodded his understanding.

Upon entering the kitchen the pair were greeted by the sight of the bar’s owner Grillby leaning against the wall rubbing his jaw. Seeing the elementals together like this made Emma realise just how similar Grillby and her attacker were, at least in appearance. Aside from their colouring the only real difference between them was that Grillby’s features were softer than the other one’s. They even had on the same wire-rimmed glasses. They had to be related or something, but before she could pursue this thought any further a searing pain erupted in her hand.

Biting back a scream Emma looked over at the dark flame monster next to her. He was sniffing the air with a glazed look on his face. As the elemental’s temperature started to rise again Emma caught a whiff of what was cooking. Quickly she started to tug him towards the exit. “H-hey Grills, it’s such a nice day, why don’t we sit outside and you can tell me about the time Sans miscalculated his short cut and ended up stuck in your wall… How did you get him out in the end?”

The same dry crackly chuckle emanated from the monster as he sat down on the back steps of the bar. “I… had… to call...in a favour...” His voice was slow and raspy, each word an effort to say and behind it all the faint sounds of a dying fire.

Emma nodded, “right. Now you stay put and I’ll get some food okay?”

Getting a hesitant nod from the elemental Emma turned back to the kitchen, only to have the world tilt dangerously as she crossed the threshold. Her body had decided it was the perfect time to remind her of the abuse it had just suffered. But as the ground rushed up to meet her a pair of strong arms caught her.

“It’s alright Miss I have you.” A soft crackling voice reassured the girl as she was gently picked up and cradled against a warm chest.

“Need to get…”

“Shh... Chillby can handle it. Let’s get those burns dealt with.”

Seeing the purple elemental heading for the stove Emma forced her aching throat to croak out. “Not the bacon.”

“What?” Chillby asked, turning to face the scorched human resting in Grillby’s arms.

“Don’t give him the bacon, it'll set him off again.” Emma managed to rasp out. The pain she was in was making it hard to do or say anything, but she had to make sure they understood.

Chillby regarded the girl for a few moments as she tried to speak again, before replying “Got it. Go get fixed.”

Grillby took this as his cue to carefully carry the girl back into the bar and set her down on a stool. “This will feel quite strange, but the sensation should pass quickly.” He said softly as he gently cupped Emma’s injured hands in his own.

Emma watched as a soft green light encased her hands and with it came the promised strange sensation. It reminded her of the weird static feeling she had felt when she had crawled inside Dust’s ribcage to retrieve her cat. It also had this warm pins and needles feeling about it. Slowly the angry red burns receded, leaving behind healthy skin.

When Grillby finished with her hands he moved onto her neck and then checked the rest of her for injuries. As he was doing this Emma closed her eyes and tried to think what she was going to do about her ruined top.

It was going to be nearly impossible to come up with a convincing story to explain the state of her clothes to her friends. She didn’t want to cause any more problems for the poor elemental, which meant she needed to figure out how she was going to get a new top from home. Unfortunately, Emma still didn’t have a working mobile phone. She had found her Mum’s old one, but it was dead, so she had given it to the skeletons to use for parts. That left either walking back through the centre of town in her scorched and torn top or asking Grillby if he had a phone she could use. Then she could either call Pap to bring her a new top or more likely call a cab to take her home.

Emma mentally crossed calling Pap off the list of possibilities. She knew he was trying to avoid the other skeletons, which meant the bar was basically off-limits, as it seemed to be one of their favourite places to hang out. That left her with either walking home or trying to get a cab. Then turning around and coming back in again, which was going to be a hassle, but she didn’t want to miss seeing her friends this week. So it came down to convenience versus expense.

Before she could come to a decision Grillby’s voice broke through her musings. “There, that should do it.”

“Thanks,” Emma said with a hesitant smile. She tried to get off the stool, only to have the world start spinning the moment she moved.

“Careful,” Grillby said softly as he steadied the small girl. “Healing magic can take a toll on a human, you should rest for a while.”

“Can’t...need to get home,” Emma mumbled as the world continued to spin around her.

“Miss, I understand you want to leave, but you really should rest. I can keep my brother away from you…”

“It’s not that,” Emma cut in, before closing her eyes in an attempt to stop the spinning. She opened them again and looked the elemental in the eye. “Kinda need to, unless you can think of something to tell my friends about this when they get here.” She said dryly while pulling at her top, which then proceeded to come apart in her hand.

“Arr…”

“Don’t worry kid I’ve got one you can borrow.” Chillby’s voice piped up from the kitchen.

“That would be great, thank you,” Emma said turning slightly in her seat to face the purple elemental who was leaning against the kitchen door.

“Umm, how is he?” She asked hesitantly.

“Ember? He seems to be back to normal. My brother...he actually wants to talk with you.”

“Chills, that may not be a good idea...” Grillby said with a frown.

“It’s alright, there’s something I want to ask him anyway.” There was something niggling at the back of Emma’s mind about the way they called the dark elemental brother, but that could wait. Right now there was an opportunity to get some information that could help the boys.

“Miss, I can’t in good conscience recommend this, my brother has…” Grillby struggled to find the right word as he looked at the girl with concern.

“P.T.S.D. right? Not surprising if he’s from the same tribe as Pap. I should be alright as long as I don’t smell too cooked.”

“Cooked?”

“Um yeah, when we passed through the kitchen it seemed like it was the smell that was triggering him. So as long as I don’t smell like food I should be fine.”

Grillby looked like he wanted to say something, but before he could Emma’s stomach decided it was time for breakfast and made its opinion known very loudly.

“Um sorry about that… would it be alright for me to order breakfast?” Emma asked sheepishly as a deep blush covered her cheeks.

Grillby coughed in an attempt to hide his chuckle. “Of course, your usual Eggs Royale with a large orange juice?”

“Yes please,” Emma mumbled as she reached for her purse.

Grilllby shook his head, “it’s on the house.” He said softly.

“You don’t have to, I don’t mind pa...” her words faltered as Grillby fixed her with a stern look. “Thanks,” Emma mumbled, feeling her blush deepening as the elemental nodded and went about his work.

Emma carefully climbed off the stool and slowly wandered over to where her hat and kindle had fallen in the confusion earlier. It looked like she was doomed to lose every argument today. The world tilted slightly as she bent down to retrieve her stuff.

“Sheesh kid, Grillby told you to rest.” Chillby crackled in exasperation as he moved to help the girl.

“I'm fine, just wanted to get my stuff,” Emma said with a shaky smile. She slowly straightened up and walked over to her normal seat, which was in one of the booths that lined the right-hand side of the bar.

Chillby crossed his arms and shook his head, “you’re a strange one.” He muttered as he turned to retrieve the promised top.

“Perhaps, but what is normal?” Emma asked, looking up from checking her belongings.

“Being frightened and not wanting to talk with the guy that just attacked you,” Chillby shot back over his shoulder, “or demanding that the guard arrest him.” He muttered as he disappeared outback.

Emma shrugged as she returned to examining her stuff. “ _At least this time nothing was damaged_.” She thought to herself, admiring the new dark lenses her friend Paul had made for her hat.

As she was stowing her kindle away Grillby came up to the table with her drink. “Please don’t mind Chills, he’s from the Fell tribe and they tend to look on the dark side of things.”

“It’s alright, I most likely am a bit strange. I just don’t want to cause the poor guy more problems than he’s already got.” Emma said, adding with a slight smile. “Though perhaps for everyone’s sake you should keep him away from any form of pork.”

“Pork?” Grillby enquired, only for another voice to echo his words from behind him. Turning he spotted the other two elementals coming over.

“Why should I avoid pork?” Ember asked from his position behind Chillby.

“To stop anyone else becoming the breakfast special.” Seeing the quizzical looks on the monsters’ faces Emma laughed and rubbed the back of her head ruefully. “Sorry I tend to forget that stuff I take for common knowledge really isn’t. Pigs or pork smell and taste the same as humans when cooked. So it’s no wonder the bacon triggered you.”

“Where on earth did you learn that?” Chillby asked as he handed over a black t-shirt.

“From my Dad, he’s the one that told me about long pork.” Emma’s reply came out a little muffled as she was currently wriggling around inside the t-shirt trying to get her old one off.

“Long pork?”

“Um yeah, my Dad was a firefighter... Um, long pork was one of the names they gave corpses to help distance themselves from what they were dealing with. You kinda have to with a job like that.” Emma said popping her head out of the t-shirt and stowing away the ruined remains of her old top. “Their humour tends to be a bit on the dark side too. Sorry, I’m starting to ramble, aren’t I? You wanted to talk with me about something?”

“Yes, if you don’t mind Miss?” Ember said in his low rasping voice.

“It’s Emma and it would be hypocritical of me if I did. Especially after my introduction to Axe… Oh sorry I mean Sans.” She reassured the towering elemental.

“So you really did say, Sans?” Ember asked, his voice rising slightly with hope.

“Ember don’t get your hopes up, several of the skeletons are called Sans. She could mean anyone of them.” Chillby said as he moved off to finish opening up the bar.

“But the stories...” you could almost see the desperation radiating off the gaunt monster.

“Maybe this will help,” Emma said softly as she pulled her sketchbook out and tapped the seat next to her. “Come sit down.”

Ember cautiously slid into the seat and gasped in surprise as the girl opened up the book to reveal an A4 sketch of Axe. In the picture, he was asleep in an armchair with Papyrus leaning over him having just finished tucking a blanket around him. The tall skeleton had a soft and loving look on his face as he gazed down at his brother. “This is the pair I know as Sans and Papyrus.”

Tentatively Ember’s fingers reached out and brushed across the image. “They’re alive… I thought… We all thought… Where on earth have they been? We had all but give up hope of finding them.” A soft hissing sound accompanied his words.

Looking over at the elemental, Emma realised that the hissing sound was being caused by hot tears running down the monster’s face. She gently took his hand and smiled at him. “I can’t tell you where they have been all this time, but I can say that they are alive and well.”

“Angel be praised, are you sure they’re alright?”

“Well, they were this morning.”

“What?! Are you living with them?”

Emma winced, silently cursing herself as she looked away. She hadn’t meant for that to come out. She knew that the guys were hiding from the other skeletons, but what if they were hiding from their tribe too? Dam it, she just wanted to comfort the elemental, not risk exposing the boys.

A warm hand closed around her own. “Please Miss, we’ve all been so worried about them. After all they did for us, I just want to be sure they’re safe.” Sincere concern shimmered in the pale flames of Ember’s eyes as he spoke.

“No, I’m not living with them.” Turning and seeing the look on his face Emma decided to take a chance. “They’re living with me, slight difference.” She said with a soft smile.

Ember blinked and opened his mouth to speak, but Emma held up a hand to stop him. “Look, the monsters they were staying with before didn’t treat them very well. I don’t want to lose what trust I’ve managed to earn…”

“Who hurt them?” Ember cut in, his temperature raising with his temper.

“Ow, Grillby! Hand!” Emma cried as she pulled her hand free from his.

“Sorry did I hurt you?”

“No it’s fine,” Emma said flexing her fingers. “And to answer your question they were staying with the other skeletons,” she raised a hand again as the elemental started to flare up. “They never got physical, Axe would never have stood for it. It was just lots of little things that added up until they couldn’t take it anymore and moved in with me.”

“Axe?”

“Sorry one of those little things. Out of the three skeletons staying with me, Axe, or Sans, was the only one who got a nickname I’m comfortable using.”

“The other names?”

“They call this one Dust, which is totally morbid, it’s like someone calling me a corpse,” Emma said, pointing to a cartoon she had done of him standing on a chair aiming a bone attack at her cat. “And you won’t believe what they called Pap… Crooks! Just because his teeth are broken. They make fun of his jagged teeth and do nothing to fix it!” She said in exasperation. “That was the final straw. I innocently asked them why he hadn’t gone to the Centre to get them fixed, only to find out that no one had told them about the place. That sent Axe into one of his rages, one thing led to another and now they’re living with me.” The suppressed fury in her gaze made the gaunt elemental flinch away from the girl. Emma blinked and looked down a little embarrassed by her outburst. “Sorry, didn’t mean to vent on you like that, it just ticks me off how anyone could treat such a sweet creature like that. It also makes me wonder if blindness runs in the family.”

“How so?”

Emma’s head shot up and incredulously looked at the monster sitting next to her. “Axe has a literal hole in his head and no one thought it might be a good idea to take him to a healer to get it checked out? Okay, I know he’s able to function like everyone else, but that’s still not normal. I don’t know how long they’ve been up here, that’s one of the things I wanted to ask you, but you’d think someone would have done something about it by now.” She shook her head and sighed. “Sorry, I’m doing it again aren’t I?”

Ember took a shuddering breath trying to rein in his own simmering rage. “It’s alright, I quite understand, it’s hard to think of my old friend being treated like that.”

“Yeah, so um, Grill...sorry I keep wanting to call you by the name Papyrus knew you by... So um, what should I call you?” Emma said apologetically, rubbing the back of her head.

“Ember, I go by that now, it’s less confusing that way.”

“Okay, so Ember did you just want to know about the boys or was there something else you wanted to ask?”

“No, that was it, though I am curious as to how you met them.” Ember enquired.

“Umm…” Emma mentally debated just what to tell the elemental. She really didn’t want to set Ember off and get burned again today, so it was probably not a good idea to say how she met Papyrus and his brothers. However, she didn’t want to lie to the guy either, so she decided to go with the middle ground. “I met Pap about three weeks ago. We got talking and well one thing lend to another and now they’re staying with me. And since we are on the subject would you do me a small favour and not tell the other skeletons any of this. The guys really don’t want to have anything to do with them at the moment.”

“Of course.”

Emma let out a sigh of relief and smiled at the monster. “Thank you. Do you mind if I ask you some questions?”

“It depends on what you want to know,” Ember said cautiously. There were things in his and the boys past that should never see the light of day.

“I was hoping you could tell me how someone goes about getting identification for a monster.” Emma blushed slightly, “I’ve tried looking it up online, but I’ve had no luck.”

Ember blinked, “Why?”

Emma sighed, “because I want to help the guys get sorted out. I was going to ask Muffet, but I think you might be better able to help.”

“How so?” Ember asked curiously.

“Because you’re from the same tribe as at least two of them, unless D is too?” Emma asked, turning to a sketch of Dust in her book.

Ember shook his head “no, sorry.”

Emma shrugged, “oh well, worth a try. But like I was saying since you’re from the same tribe you should be able to tell me what to expect when I take the boys to the Centre.”

“You haven’t taken them there yet?”

“No, not yet. Believe me, I would have taken Pap to get his teeth fixed the same day they moved in, but after talking with him we decided to wait and try to get some information on the place first.”

“Why?”

“There are a few reasons, the main one being I want the guys to feel as comfortable as possible when we go.” Seeing the curious look on the monster’s face Emma sighed and continued. “Look, no matter what I do, getting Pap’s teeth fixed is going to be an ordeal for both of them. I just want to make it as easy as possible for them. And you know how protective Axe is of his brother, do you really think he’s going to be happy with some stranger poking around Pap’s mouth with something sharp?”

Ember winced. “Yes, that could be a problem.”

“Yeah, that’s part of the reason I wanted to talk to you. When I tried to look up the Centre, all I found was the public website and that didn’t have a lot of info on it. I was hoping you could tell me where to look or had some information I could to give the guys.”

Ember didn’t know if the girl’s request saddened or angered him more. While he was grateful that she wanted to help the boys, registering with the Centre and helping him get his ID sorted were things his new family had done for him. “Didn’t those monsters do anything to help them?”

“They gave them a roof over their heads, food to eat and some second-hand clothes,” Emma said wearily rubbing her face. “God, they weren’t even allowed out to get some new clothes.” She looked up at the elemental, “sorry, I’m doing it again,” she muttered, before growling in frustration. “It’s just… Arg I just don’t get it. Normally I don’t like judging someone without hearing their side of the story and I know Axe isn’t the easiest person in the world to get along with, but I can’t think of one good reason to leave them in pain like this.”

“Neither can I,” Ember grated out as his temperature started to rise again.

Just as his temperature was reaching dangerous levels a hand none to gently clapped him around the back of his head. “Cool it, before you set the dam sprinklers off.” Chillby crackled out, glaring down at his dark brother.

Whatever angry retort Ember was thinking of died on his lips as he scowled back at his brother. Instead, he took a deep breath and tried to rein in his rage. It was hard, so hard, to let go of the anger. Every time he thought he had it under control Ember would remember the indignities his old friend Sans had suffered and it would flare up again. After everything, the brothers had gone through to protect their community, to be treated like this when they were finally free, it burned.

After several tense minutes, the dark elemental stood up and regarded the kind human who had taken his friend in. “I’ll see what information I can get for you,” he murmured.

“Thank you,” Emma said with a grateful smile.

“It’s going to take some time, how long will you be here for?” Ember enquired.

“I normally stay until my friends leave at around midday, but I can stay longer if needed.”

“No, I should be able to find what you asked for by then.”

“Alright, thank you again for doing this… Um, if you want I can take a message back to the boys. I’m sure they would love to hear from you.”

Ember blinked then let out a small chuckle. “You mean Papyrus will.”

“Um yeah, sorry it’s kinda hard to know how Axe will react to anything,” Emma admitted sheepishly.

“It’s quite alright, Sans has always been a hard one to read,” Ember reassured the girl as he walked away.

Chillby regarded the girl for a moment more before passing Emma her breakfast and then followed after his brother, shaking his head as he went.

Emma groaned as she looked down at her plate. She had forgotten to ask Grillby not to put the salad garnish on it once again. He tended to use rocket which Emma found a bit too bitter for her taste, but as Axe would say, food is food and with enough ketchup, almost anything can be made edible.

As she was finishing her breakfast Emma’s friends slowly drifted in and the morning proceeded in a more normal fashion. They always started by catching up on how each other’s week had been, then just chatted the rest of the morning away. All too soon midday rolled around and Emma and her friends got ready to leave.

As the group stood up Ember walked over with a few bags in his hands. He smiled down at the little human who had a surprised look on her face and let out a sheepish chuckle. “I may have got a little carried away with things, but the information you wanted is in one of the bags.”

“And the rest of them?” Emma asked.

“All his favourite treats from before, well…” Ember’s voice faded into a soft hiss as words failed him. How could he tell this gentle creature of the horrors he had lived through?

“Hey, it’s alright, I understand, you don’t have to say anything. I know a bit about the hell you all went through underground.” Emma reassured the gaunt monster.

Ember sagged as he let out the breath he hadn’t realised he was holding. “Thank you, and thank you for taking in the boys.”

Emma shook her head and smiled up at the elemental. “There’s no need to thank me, I was happy to do it. If anything I should be thanking you for doing all this. Even if it’s going to be a bit of fun figuring out how to carry all this home.” She said with a cheeky smile, as she took the bags from the dark flame monster.

“Sorry, since this is going to be the last time I ever cook, I wanted to make sure there was plenty for everyone, but perhaps I went a bit too far.”

“Ember I was teas… wait, you’re going to give up cooking, why?” Emma asked with a startled look on her face.

“It’s too dangerous, I could have killed you!” Ember said dejectedly as he sank into a nearby chair. “And with the problems I have controlling my temperature, I can’t even work out front on the bar.” He mumbled as his head sank down in despair.

Emma regarded the gaunt monster, before putting down the bags and gently lifting up his head. “Hey, none of that now, so you had a bit of a setback that’s no reason to give up.” Seeing the uncertainty still lingering in his eyes, she fought back a sigh and continued. “Look how long have you been up here?”

“About six months,” Ember murmured.

“That’s hardly any time at all to deal with everything you went through down there. It may make me sound like a fortune cookie, but the road to recovery isn’t a straight one. So you had a setback and hit a roadblock. Take a break, then look from a different perspective to find a solution. Look, I’ve gotta go, but I’m in here most Saturdays if you want to talk. Just don’t give up alright?” Emma said encouragingly, letting go of the elemental and picking the bags back up.

Ember took a shuddering breath and nodded before slowly standing up. He looked at the girl for a moment before saying softly. “You’re very like him.”

“Like who?”

“Papyrus, he would always encourage us not to give up,” Ember said so quietly it was barely audible above the noise in the room.

Emma couldn’t help flicking her gaze towards the bar for a moment. Where a couple of the skeletons were nursing drinks and looking particularly seedy this morning. She returned her attention to the monster in front of her. “Umm thank you… Oh, I almost forgot, did you have a message for the boys?” Emma asked, trying to steer the conversation away from herself.

Ember watched as a faint blush dusted the little human’s cheeks highlighting the strange scar on the left one. The mark stirred something in the back of the elemental’s mind, but instead of pursuing it, he let out a dry chuckle before answering. “Yes, I did, don’t worry I wrote them down and put them in with the rest of the stuff.”

“Okay, well I better catch up with my friends. You’ll be alright?” Emma asked.

Ember nodded.

“Okay then, I’ll be seeing ya,” Emma said smiling brightly. As she turned to go, a thought occurred to her. “Ya know, I still don’t know the name of your tribe.” She said turning around to look back at the tall elemental.

Ember blinked before letting out a crackly laugh. “We are the Horror Tribe.”

“Well, that’s…descriptive,” Emma said, wincing.

Still laughing Ember waved it off saying. “Don’t worry about it, the King has never been very good at naming things.”

“If you say so.” Emma wasn’t too sure about that name, but it didn’t seem to bother Ember so she wouldn’t let it bother her either.

After that, the pair said their goodbyes again and Emma met up with her friends, who had been patiently waiting for her outside the bar. A short time afterwards Emma split from the group as she didn’t want the food Ember had given her getting too cold before she got home.

It was nearly 12.30 by the time Emma arrived home and called out the standard, “I’m home.”

“Welcome Back Dear Friend! I Am Afraid You Have Caught Me Unprepared, For I Was Not Expecting You Back Before One And Therefore I Have Only Just Started On The Preparations For Lunch.” Papyrus said sticking his head out of the kitchen.

“That’s alright Pap, I ran into an old acquaintance of yours and he gave me some food for us to share. And if the weight of these bags is anything to go by it should make a pretty decent meal for us.”

“Well, That Was Nice Of…” Papyrus’ words petered out as he squinted at his friend. “Emma, Correct Me If I Am Wrong, But Were You Not Wearing A Blue Top This Morning?”

“Um yeah,” Emma said looking down at her borrowed top. It may have been a t-shirt on the monster it was made for, but on Emma it was practically a mini dress, coming down to just below her knees.

Papyrus sighed as he walked up to his friend and took the bags. “What Happened?”

“Err yeah, remember when I said I ran into an old acquaintance of yours?”

“Why Yes...Oh, Dear...Who Was It And Are You Alright?” Papyrus asked as he started to check Emma for injuries. A run-in with someone from his underground most likely meant she had been hurt again.

“It was Grillby and I’m fine. You see Grillby… oh man, they’re right, it does get confusing. I mean Classic Grillby healed me right up. Once I managed to talk your friend out of making me the breakfast special that is. It’s just a shame healing magic doesn’t work on clothing. That’s the third top I’ve lost this month, but hey, I got a free breakfast out of it and they let me borrow this top, so not all bad.” Emma said, trying to reassure her agitated friend.

Papyrus knelt down so he could see his friend better. “Are You Sure You Are Unharmed?” He asked, the concern shimmering in his small eye lights.

“Yes, Pap I’m fine. It just umm…” Emma could feel the blush creeping over her cheeks as she spoke. “I was too embarrassed to ask them, but did he scorch my hair at all?” She asked, taking her hat off and turning around so he could see.

Papyrus blinked and started to laugh softly, “Nyeh Eh Eh, Your Hair Is Fine.” He reassured Emma gently nuzzling her neck, before standing back up taking both Emma and the bags with him. “Now Shall We See What He Gave You In Compensation For Your Fiery Ordeal?”

“Alright,” Emma murmured, resting her head against his chest. She let the last of her fear drift away in the safety of her towering skeleton’s embrace.

Papyrus smiled to himself as he felt the tension leave his little friend’s body. He knew she needed this. He could tell that for all her reassurances Emma was still pretty shaken up by the events of the morning. His smile turned mischievous as he thought of something that would cheer his friend up.

Emma couldn’t help but laugh as Papyrus used his magic to steal her hat and bag. He then proceeded to use them to perform various tricks, making them twist and turn in the air while walking back to the kitchen still carrying Emma and the bags.

“Show off,” Emma said, giggling.

“Perhaps, But It Did Make You Smile,” Papyrus said happily, nuzzling his friend as he put the bags down on the counter and with a flourish returned her belongings to their usual resting place.

“Yeah, so are you going to put me down or are you going to show off some more and use your magic to see what Ember gave us?”

“Ember?” Papyrus asked, as he gently restored Emma to the ground.

“Oh sorry, Ember is the name Grillby is going by now, so as not to be confused with his brother,” Emma explained.

“That Makes Sense, I Just Hope He Got To Pick His Name,” Papyrus said, frowning as he remembered the nickname he was given.

“Don’t worry Pap, he seems to have a better relationship with his brothers than you do with your cousins,” Emma reassured her towering friend. She gave him a quick hug around the hip, which was as high as she could reach. “Speaking of your cousins, I saw two of them at the bar today. They were looking pretty seedy. It seems like they didn’t get a lot of sleep last night.”

“I Can Not Understand Why That Would Be. I Personally Made Sure That All Their Beds Were Up To My Exacting Standards Upon My Last Visit To Their Residence.” Papyrus said, smiling innocently down at his friend.

“That was very considerate of you Pap,” Emma said, trying in vain to keep a straight face.

The pair looked at each other for a few moments before collapsing into a fit of laughter. When they finally managed to regain control of themselves, they found that they had an audience.

“What tickled your _funny bones_?” Axe asked from his place by the basement door.

Papyrus groaned at the pun and refused to answer his brother. Instead, he busied himself with sorting out the contents of the bags.

Emma shook her head at the skeleton’s antics, before turning around with a big grin on her face to answer Axe. “Oh nothing much, just how miserable a couple of your cousins were looking this morning.”

“Huh,” Axe studied the girl for a minute before turning to his brother. “Hey Pap, when is lunch?” He asked.

“Just As Soon As I Finish Sorting Out These Edible Delicacies, To Find Out What We Need To Go With Them Brother,” Papyrus replied absently as he continued to sort through the bags.

“Yeah, and where did that lot come from?” Axe asked as he shuffled into the room.

“Emma Brought Them Home With Her.”

“Oh,” Axe turned to regard the little human again. “So where did you find this lot then?”

“I was given them by an old flame of your acquaintance,” Emma said, shrugging.

“Emma Could You Not” Papyrus groaned reproachfully.

“What?” Emma asked, blinking in confusion at her friend.

Papyrus huffed, placing his hands on his hips. “Considering We Are Talking About Grillby That Was Definitely A Pun.”

“No, it’s literally that he is a flame monster who is older than you. So he is an old flame of your acquaintance, therefore not a pun.” Emma said with a mischievous glint in her eyes. She had said it without thinking, but it was too much fun teasing Pap like this.

“No, It Was A Pun” Papyrus said, stamping his foot and leaning down to glare at his human.

“No, it’s literal,” Emma said mirroring Pap’s pose.

“Pun.”

“Literal.”

“Pun.”

“Literal.”

Axe sighed, he knew how this was going to go. The pair would keep this going for ages until the kid burst out laughing or his brother picked her up. Either way, lunch was not going to be any time soon if he didn’t do something and he wanted to eat.

“It’s a pun. Now would one of ya mind telling me why ya arguing about Grillby in the first place, so we can have lunch already?” Axe growled, silencing the other occupants of the kitchen.

“Because it was your old friend Grillby that gave me the food,” Emma said grinning at Axe. “Oh, that reminds me Pap, somewhere in that lot should be information on the Centre and how we go about getting you guys your IDs. There’s also a message for you two from Grillby in there somewhere.”

Papyrus nodded happily and eagerly went back to sorting out the contents of the bags.

Axe perplexedly stared at the pair. “Why would he do that and why are ya calling him my friend? I don’t know him?”

“Sans, I’m not talking about the Grillby from the Classic tribe. I’m talking about the Grillby from your tribe, you remember him right? Because he remembers you. The only reason I’m standing here at all is because I reminded him about some of your drunken antics from before things went to hell.” Emma said gently.

“Yeah, but what…?” Axe didn’t even know what he was asking and he felt utterly lost. Why would anyone from his underground want anything to do with him after everything he had done.

Papyrus looked at his brother’s perplexed expression and sighed. “Emma Perhaps You Can Help Sans Set The Table For Lunch And Then We Can Sit Down And You Can Tell Us What Happened From The Beginning?”

“Alright,” Emma said, pulling out the old kitchen table that Papyrus had found, so they could all eat together.

Axe mechanically set the table, then took a seat. Dust soon arrived and Papyrus dished out the food while Emma recounted the events of the morning to the group. Axe sat silently throughout the meal. The food brought back pleasant memories from better times, but the girl’s words left him stunned. The other survivors had been worried about them? Had been looking for them? To make sure they were safe, why? After the things he had done, the name he had earned, why would anyone aside from his brother want anything to do with him? It had to be a trick, but what if it wasn’t? The kid knew what they had done and she seemed to accept them, could it really be true? Could his people really want him after everything that had happened?

Axe was so lost in his confusing and contradictory thoughts that he barely registered his brother speaking until Papyrus gently tapped him on the arm. “Huh?”

“I Said That Included With The Information That Was Given To Emma There Were Two Envelopes. One For You And One For Me.” Papyrus said gently, holding out a white envelope.

Axe stared at his name written in the elemental’s unmistakable style on the crisp white paper, not really comprehending what he was seeing. Hesitantly he reached out, half expecting it to disappear on him, but it didn’t. In a daze Axe stood up and wandered out of the room, still looking at the envelope now clutched in his outstretched hand.

Emma sadly watched the retreating skeleton disappear from sight, before turning to her friend. “Sorry Pap, I didn’t mean to upset him. I just wanted to help, but I guess I messed things up again.”

Papyrus sighed and shook his head. “No My Friend, You Have Done Nothing Wrong, In Fact, You Have Done Something Wonderful. I Believe My Brother Is A Little Shocked And Is Having A Hard Time Assimilating The News That Someone Other Than Myself Cares About His Well Being.” He smiled sadly down at his friend. “Let Us Give Him Some Space So He Can Adjust To This.”

“Alright,” Emma said, getting up to help Papyrus tidy the kitchen, Dust having done his normal disappearing trick.

The rest of the day passed quietly. Emma helped Papyrus continue with his campaign to tame the backyard. It had become quite the jungle over the last few years, mainly because none of Emma’s family had much of a green thumb, so they tended to let nature take its course, but Papyrus was determined to tame it. Dust continued to work on whatever project the skeleton’s were doing down in her father’s old workshop in the basement. Axe, on the other hand, spent the remainder of the day in a daze. Not even his brother’s excellent cooking at dinner time was enough to draw him back out of his thoughts and soon after the meal he called it a night, retreating up to his room. Dust followed shortly afterwards, leaving the other two to enjoy a quiet evening together before they too retired for the night.

That night Emma’s dreams were filled with images of the manic grin on Ember’s face. Along with a jumbled mess of memories involving the elemental. Several times during the night she vaguely surfaced only to drift back into an uneasy sleep.

Around three in the morning, a particularly bad dream left Emma sitting up in bed shaking like a leaf and clinging to her favourite stuffed animal. She decided to give up on going back to sleep, instead, she looked down at the old stuffed tiger in her arms and said. “Well, that was fun. How about you and me head downstairs, make a cup of tea and watch some TV to try and get these images out of my head? Sounds like a plan to you Tigger?”

Of course, Tigger didn’t answer, he just looked at Emma with his soft embroidered eyes.

“Okay then, let’s get going,” She said hugging Tigger tightly to herself as she got up and headed towards the stairs.

The moment Emma opened her bedroom door she heard a sound that sent a chill running down her spine. Her feet carried her forward without conscious thought, as her mind relived the last time she had heard something like this. The sound was a moaning filled with endless pain and suffering and it was coming from Axe’s room.

Hesitantly she raised a hand and knocked on the door. “Axe are you alright in there?”

Getting no response Emma started banging furiously on the door. “Sans, please answer me!”

Panic gripped at her heart as the only sound that emerged from the room was the pain-filled moaning. With trembling fingers, Emma grasped the doorknob and thrust open the door, praying desperately that this would not be a repeat of last time. Upon entering the room Emma dashed to the bed, where Axe was thrashing about madly with energy crackling dangerously around him.

Not even thinking of the danger, Emma grabbed the thrashing skeleton in an attempt to stop him from hurting himself, yelling at the top of her lungs. “SANS PLEASE WAKE UP!... PLEASE FOR GOD’S SAKE WAKE UP!!...PLEASE…” Over and over she repeated her desperate pleas. Practically in tears, as she used her entire body to restrain the unconscious monster.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Axe lay still and opened his sockets. Slowly he sat up taking Emma with him. Bones rattling with remembered fear, he wrapped his arms tightly around the girl, burying his head into her shoulder he burst into tears.

“Shhh, it’s alright, you're alright, everything is fine now, you're safe, it was just a dream. I’m here, everything is going to be alright,” Emma whispered soothingly as tears of relief fell from her eyes.

How long the pair remained like this is anyone’s guess. Emma whispered words of comfort while using one hand to rub soothing circles on the bit of his back she could reach. Axe clung desperately to her sobbing his metaphorical heart out. Gradually his tears subsided and he fell back to sleep, laying back down while still hugging Emma like a teddy bear.

For a long time Emma just laid there, listening to his breathing, before she too drifted off into a deep and dreamless sleep.

Papyrus, who had been woken up by all the noise, silently closed the door and made his way back to his own room. A small secretive smile played across his teeth as he settled down to sleep once more.

When morning came Axe stirred sleepily, snuggling into the soft warmth in his arms. He vaguely remembered nightmares filled with pain and hunger, then comfort and safety. Papyrus must have come in during the night and helped him, but something was off. Pap was much taller than him and harder than the soft thing he was holding. Also, there was a scent in the air that was awakening his hunger in the most terrible way.

Slowly he opened his sockets to find the human cradled protectively against his chest. In horror, Axe flinched back, flinging the girl across the bed. “What the fuck!”

This, of course, woke Emma up, “Sans are you alright?” She asked the skeleton in a concerned voice. Only to find she was talking to thin air as Axe had used a shortcut to escape.

“Of course not. I’m here,” Emma mumbled miserably as she crawled off the bed.

Getting up she saw Papyrus standing by the open door. “Emma Are You Alright? I Came To Get The Pair Of You For Breakfast.” He huffed as he looked around the room, “But It Seems I Must Retrieve My Errant Brother From Elsewhere.”

Emma shuffled over and buried herself in the skeleton’s side. “I’m fine, but I think that Axe is upset with me again,” she mumbled.

Papyrus gently wrapped himself around his trembling friend. “Now Why Would You Think That?”

“I’m in his room and he threw me across the bed,” Emma said flatly.

Papyrus gently nuzzled his distraught friend, as he was doing this he caught a whiff of something that made him sigh. “Believe Me Emma, Sans Is Not Upset With You. He Was Just A Little Startled And Scared This Morning.” Slowly Papyrus straightened back up “Why Not Go Get Dressed And I Will Retrieve My Errant Brother. Then We Can All Sit Down And Sort Out This Misunderstanding.”

Emma nodded dejectedly, before shuffling out of the room. She didn’t think talking with Axe would do much good. Though he was no longer openly hostile with her, it still felt like he only tolerated her for Pap’s sake.

Papyrus shook his head sadly as he went in search of his brother. He had really hoped that Sans, upon seeing Emma this morning would have finally realised that she truly cared about them and sat down to have a real conversation with her. Then, maybe his brother would have admitted that he cared about Emma too.

Papyrus eventually found Axe down in the basement, surrounded by food wrappers and furiously scrubbing his hands. “Oh Brother,” he breathed sadly as he walked over and placed a restraining hand on Sans’ wrist.

“Huh?” Axe blinked, coming out of whatever trance he was in.

“I Believe You Have Managed To Wash Away What Little Blood You Had On You. If You Continue To Do This, It Will Be Your Dust And Mana In The Sink Brother.” Papyrus said gently, retrieving the scrubbing brush from Axe and steering him towards the stairs. “Now I Know You Have Had A Bad Night And A Bit Of A Scare This Morning, But I Believe It Is About Time You And Emma Sorted Some Things Out Before There Are Any More Misunderstandings.”

“Fuck no!” Axe cried, breaking away from his brother’s grasp and backing up like a frightened animal.

Papyrus huffed as he placed his hands on his hips. “Now You Are Just Being Silly Brother. You Can Not Possibly Be Scared Of Emma, She Has To Be One Of The Least Frightening Beings In The Universe.” He said glaring at Axe in exasperation.

“I ain’t fucking scared!” Axe growled, still backing away.

“Then What?”

Sweat dotted Axe’s skull as he muttered something inaudibly.

“What Was That Brother?” Papyrus enquired, cocking his head and cupping a hand to where his ear would be.

Axe desperately looked around for an escape route as he muttered something under his breath.

“What Was That Dear Brother, I Did Not Quite Catch That?” Seeing a sudden gleam in Axe’s eye light, Papyrus darted forward and wrapped himself around the struggling skeleton. “Oh No, Dear Brother. I Am Not Letting You Use One Of Your Shortcuts To Get Out Of This. We Are Having This Conversation, And You Will Talk Things Out With Emma.”

“I ain’t going anywhere near that fucking snack! I almost took a bite out of her this morning already!” Axe screamed, as he vainly tried to free himself from his brother’s embrace.

Papyrus rolled his eye lights heavenward. “And Pray Tell Me Why Should That Matter? It Is Not Like You Have Not Eaten Raw Meat Before Brother.”

“ ‘cause I don’t want to hurt her again! The kid doesn’t deserve it.” Axe growled out as he sagged in defeat.

“There, Was It So Hard To Admit That You Might Actually Like Her?” Papyrus asked gently as he stood up taking Axe with him.

“She’s human, she’ll end up betraying us just like the last one did,” Axe mumbled dejectedly as he was carried towards the stairs.

“I Know Frisk Did Some Terrible Things And I Am Truly Sorry For What You Had To Suffer Through. But Emma Is Not Frisk And Will Not Desert Us Or Treat Our Lives Like Some Game. All I Ask Is You Give Her The Chance To Prove It.” Papyrus said softly, placing Axe gently down on the stairs.

“Fine” Axe grumbled, “but she’d ain’t gonna want to talk to me after I attacked her last night.”

“That Was Not What I Saw Last Night,” Papyrus said, smiling gently. “What I Saw Was Emma Comforting You After Your Nightmare.”

“What Pap, ya have to be kidding me. I could smell the blood on her and on my claws. What do you think triggered my hunger this morning? I must have attacked her?”

“Or You Just Held Her Too Tightly, Your Phalanges Are Rather Sharp. Please Just Talk To Her And Sort This Out. Emma Thinks You Are Mad At Her For Being In Your Room Without Permission.”

“Fine,” Axe muttered as he trudged up the stairs followed by his brother.

They found Emma surveying the wreckage left behind by Axe’s early morning snack attack. Hesitantly she looked at the short skeleton. “H-hey Sans…I’m really sorry for busting into your room like that… It’s just...when I heard you moaning ... I thought...I’m sorry, I’ll try not to do it again.”

The realisation hit Papyrus and he looked at his small friend with sympathy. “Oh, Emma Did He Really Sound Like…”

“Yes Pap, he sounded just like Dad did before he…” Emma couldn’t bring herself to finish the sad sentence. “Sorry, it’s a poor excuse for invading your room like that.”

Axe restrained Papyrus as he went to comfort his friend. “Would one of ya mind telling me what the hell you’re talking about?”

Papyrus looked worriedly over at his little human. This was going to be painful for her especially after that horrid remainder she’d had last night.

Emma attempted a shaky smile to reassure her tall friend. “It’s alright Pap, I’ll tell him it’s not like it’s a secret or anything.” She was silent for a few moments before she started to speak softly. “About the same time that monsters were freed, so about 4-5 years ago. My Dad was diagnosed with cancer, within a few short months it went from being treatable to having spread throughout his entire body, with no hope of recovery. At the same time, I had to watch my father go from a strong healthy man just starting to slow down with age, to a frail old thing who needed help even to stand. My Mum and I fought for ages to get him home, to spend his last days with the people who loved him… Eventually, we managed it… We had him home for just one night. I will never forget it. We spent the whole evening catching up on all the programs he had missed while in hospital...he held my hand the entire time...then we said good night... I was the first one up in the morning...As I was heading downstairs I heard this terrible moaning coming from the room Dad was in… I rushed into the room to find him having a hypoglycemic attack, his blood sugar levels had gone down during the night...I tried to give him something to get them back up...so did Mum and the nurses, but it was too late his heart just couldn’t take it… He died right before my eyes.” By the time Emma had finished speaking silent tears were running down her face and her body was trembling with pent-up emotions.

Axe dropped the arm that was restraining his brother as he looked at the girl silently crying in front of him. Papyrus quickly went to comfort his friend, while Axe stared on in disbelief. The kid had thought he was dying, so had rushed in to try and help him, then stayed to make sure he was alright. Why? Why did she care so much, when all he seemed to do was hurt her?

Not being able to take the tears any longer, Axe found himself moving forward and placing a hand on the girl’s head. Just as he used to do with Pap when he was little, Axe found himself soothingly stroking her head. “Quit with the waterworks, I ain’t mad at ya for being in my room. I chucked ya because your smell was making me hungry. So why don’t ya stop crying and we go get something to eat.” He muttered gruffly, before lowering his hand and shuffling further into the kitchen in search of food.

Emma blinked, a little surprised by Axe’s gentle touch. In the three weeks that the skeletons had been living with her, this was the first time someone other than Papyrus had touched her. Still blinking away the last of her tears she hesitantly followed after the stout skeleton.

Papyrus straightened back up and was about to follow the pair when he heard footsteps behind him. Turning, he found Dust sleepily rubbing at his socket surveying the scene in front of him.

“What happened here? It looks like a hurricane hit the place.” Dust asked, yawning.

“Oh, Good Morning Brother. I Am Afraid Sans Had A Bit Of A Nightmare Last Night, So Breakfast Will Be A Little Delayed This Morning.” Papyrus said apologetically.

“Great, did he leave us any food this time?” Dust whined.

“That Is What We Are Trying To Discern At The Moment, But I Fear We Will Have To Do A Supply Run In The Near Future.” Papyrus said as he picked his way through the mess.

“Um hey, guys I think we still have the makings for Welsh cakes if anyone is interested.” Emma called out from the depths of a cupboard.

“Welsh cakes? What are those?” Axe asked, poking his head out of the small pantry at the back of the kitchen.

“They’re a bit like scones, but instead of baking them you cook them on a hot plate.”

“You don’t have one of those.” Axe pointed out, stepping back into the room.

“No, but I’ve got one of these,” Emma said pulling out a rather large frying pan “and it works just as well. So fancy giving it a go?”

“Alright, how do we do this?” Axe asked, taking the pan and placing it on the stove.

With a big grin, Emma fetched a small red leather book with gold tooling around the edge. Flicking it open she slowly started to read out the directions for the recipe. As they worked Axe made a couple of suggestions on how to increase the amounts so there would be enough for everyone to eat. Soon they were sitting down enjoying a mountain of delicious sweet cakes.

In no time at all, they finished the cakes and went back to cleaning the kitchen. As they worked Papyrus noticed that his friend kept wincing as she moved. “Emma Perhaps You Should Let Me Heal Those Cuts If They Are Bothering You So Much.”

Blinking Emma looked at the tall skeleton in confusion. “What cuts? I’m just a little stiff from sleeping on a mattress that was, um... a little more boney than I’m used to.”

Papyrus pinched his nasal ridge and let out a long-suffering sigh. “I Really Wish You Had A Better Turn Of Phrase. I Can Never Tell If Those Dreadful Puns Are Deliberate Or Not. But Seeing As I Am Such A Great Friend I Will Let That Last One Slide Since You Are Injured.”

“Aww leave off the kid, I really like the way she talks. I think it’s _Pun_ some.” Axe said with a wicked grin.

“No Brother, We Are Not Doing This! I Will Not Let You Distract Me From My Friend’s Injuries.” Papyrus declared pointing an accusing finger at his brother.

“Again, what injuries? I’m just a little stiff this morning.” Emma asked, staring at the pair in utter bewilderment.

“Em, ya don’t have to cover for me. I know I hurt ya last night,” Axe said gently.

“Axe, I know you were thrashing about a lot in your sleep, but I honestly don’t remember you hurting me at all.”

Papyrus huffed in exasperation “Emma You Have To Be One Of The Worst Persons Around For Recognising When You Are Hurt. And I Know I Smelt Blood On You This Morning And I Know Sans Smelt It Too. So Will You Please Just Let Me Check You For Injuries.”

Emma nodded “alright,” not wanting to upset her friend anymore she lifted her top up and turned around.

Papyrus knelt down practically putting his nasal cavity against her skin as he examined her back. “Mmm, It Does Seem That My Brother’s Claws Have Caught You A Few Times. None Of Them Look Too Bad, But I Think We Would All Breath Easier Once They Have Been Healed. So Why Not Head Upstairs And Have Your Bath Early Today And One Of Us Will Be Along Shortly To Treat Them.”

“Okay,” Emma said, pulling down her top and heading for the door. As she was about to leave a thought occurred to her. “Um Pap, have you seen Shadow this morning? She has normally bothered one of us for breakfast by now.”

“I Am Sure She Will Show Up Eventually,” Papyrus reassured his friend, trying not to look at Axe who had started to sweat nervously as he tried to remember just exactly what he had eaten that morning.

An unholy shriek from the basement put a stop to whatever panicked thoughts were running through the skeletons’ skulls at that moment. This sound was shortly followed by the sudden appearance of Dust, who started madly running around the kitchen. He was desperately trying to detach Shadow from his back, all the while screaming at the top of his metaphorical lungs. “GET THIS FIEND OFF ME!”

“I Will If You Would Stay Still For A Second!” Papyrus huffed as he tried to catch the rampaging skeleton.

“And on that note, I’m heading upstairs for my bath,” Emma said laughing as she walked off.

It took perhaps an hour for the noise in the kitchen to die down. Plenty of time for Emma to have a good long soak. Having put on clean pyjamas, which consisted of a large T-shirt and loose bottoms, and braided her damp hair, Emma went to open the bathroom door.

Upon opening it she was a little surprised to find Axe standing there, one hand hesitantly raised to knock. “Um hey, Sans did you need something?”

“Nah, just came to fix your back,” Axe muttered, shoving his hands into his jacket pockets.

“Okay, who are you and what have you done with the Mr Grumpy Bones I’ve been living with for the last three weeks?”

“Shut up! Don’t make this more awkward than this already is. I hurt ya so I’m gonna fix ya, end of. Now come on let’s get this over with.” Axe huffed as he turned and started for his room.

Emma shook her head and followed after the still grumbling skeleton. Upon entering his room he directed Emma to take her top off and lie down on the bed. Nothing happened for a couple of minutes then she felt his cold phalanges against her skin, they were trembling as they explored her back.

“Sans you don’t have to do this if it makes you uncomfortable. They should heal just fine on their own.” Emma said gently.

“I ain’t bothered,” Axe growled out.

“You’re trembling.”

“Shut it! I just...I ain’t done this in a while.” Axe mumbled as he finally managed to summon his magic and started to apply it to the small cuts that dotted the girl’s back.

Emma’s muscles started twitching which made her fidget under the skeleton’s touch. “Dam it, hold still! This is hard enough without you moving all the time.”

“Sorry,” Emma whispered, doing her best to stay still for the skeleton, but the sensations she was getting were making it quite difficult. Axe’s magic felt sharp and cold one moment, then warm and ticklish the next. She wasn’t sure how much more of these weird sensations she could take. Just as it was getting unbearable Axe finally finished, leaving Emma to sink gratefully into the mattress.

“Hey, don’t you dare fall asleep there. If ya gonna do that do it in your own room.”

“Alright, just give me a sec.” Emma groaned as she sat up and reached for her top.

Axe silently watched the girl pull her top over her head, causing a couple of the scars on her back to sparkle in the light. It made him flinch internally. There etched into her skin was a permanent reminder of just how different Emma was from everyone else.

Axe’s thought processes were brought to a halt when Emma stood up and headed towards the door. With a shy smile, she turned to face the skeleton. “Thanks for healing me Axe.”

“Why?”

“Why what?”

Part of Axe really wanted to ask why do you care, but his pride wouldn’t let him. So he settled for asking. “Why ain’t ya bothered by my nickname?”

A soft look crossed Emma’s face as she answered. “Because to me, an axe is just a tool my Dad used to use in his job to help him save people.”

“Huh?”

Emma giggled a little before replying. “Let me guess, to you an axe is a tool of war and destruction, it can’t be used for anything good, right?”

Axe nodded dumbly, still a little startled by the girl’s words.

“See, it’s just a matter of perspective. To me, the word has no negative connotations, but if it bugs ya so much, I could go by the monster tradition and give you a literal name like Growler or perhaps Chimes instead,” Emma said with a mischievous glint in her eye.

“Fuck that!”

“Pfft, alright Mr Grumpy Bones.”

“Aaagr just stick to Axe already.” He growled throwing a pillow at the girl.

Emma laughed as the pillow hit her. Picking it off the floor she leaned against the doorframe. “Alright point made, I’ll stop teasing ya, but seriously Sans do tell me if something I say or do bothers you. I want you to be comfortable while you are here.”

Getting a grunt in reply Emma tossed the pillow back to the skeleton. Turning to leave she smiled, “well I’ll leave you in peace. Thanks again for healing me. See ya later.”

As she was closing the door Emma thought she heard Axe quietly say. “Nah kid, it should be me thanking ya,” but she wasn’t quite sure.

Shaking her head Emma made her way to her room for a much-needed nap. Finding Tigger at the base of her stairs she gathered him in her arms and tiredly climbed up to bed.

As she laid down to sleep Emma thought about the last few weeks. Since meeting the skeletons her life had definitely become more complicated, but it was also a lot more fun. She may not be able to do much about their problems, but Emma would do all she could for them.

Thinking about the boys reminded her of Sans’ old friend Ember. It was such a shame that the gaunt elemental was going to give up cooking. He was so good at it and obviously really enjoyed working with his brothers. If only there was a way for him to cook without risking the smell triggering him again.

As Emma drifted off to sleep an idea started to form in her mind. With Tigger watching over her and a contented smile spreading across her face she fell into a deep dreamless sleep.


	7. Chapter 7

The next day found Emma standing in front of a light and airy building, with a very nervous Papyrus and an even grumpier Axe. The building was the Centre and the reason they were here was that last night Papyrus had decided that he wanted to try to get his teeth fixed. So after a quick breakfast, the trio had headed into town. Dust having decided to stay home.

Emma mentally sighed as she thought about Dust. She really didn’t know what to think about the guy. One moment he was joining in with everyone else and seemingly having a great time. Then the next moment he was putting as much distance between himself and the others as possible, in both the physical and emotional sense. There was definitely something going on there if only she could remember what it was.

It brought to mind the problem that both Papyrus and Emma were sharing at the moment. Though the pair had definitely soul touched, they were having trouble accessing each other’s memories. When Emma had asked Papyrus about it, he had theorised it was because they had done it accidentally. So instead of getting a nice simple highlight reel of the other person’s past, which would be easy to access, they had a jumbled mess that needed an outside source to trigger it. The memories were all there, but without some sort of stimuli to help, when they tried remembering something specific they would end up giving themselves a blinding headache. One of the more irritating aspects of this situation, at least for Emma, was the fact that if she was holding a pencil or something and let her mind wander she would end up drawing things from Papyrus’ past. At least now she could talk to Pap about the images and it did seem to help settle some of the memories, but it was still annoying not having complete control over her doodles.

Thinking of Papyrus Emma shook herself out of her reverie and looked at her tall friend. He was fixatedly staring at the glass doors in front of them while fiddling with the end of his scarf. He was, as usual, using it to hide his teeth. Emma really hoped that after seeing the monster equivalent of a dentist Pap wouldn’t feel the need to hide his mouth anymore.

Slowly she raised a hand to touch him in order to get his attention. “Ready to go in big guy?” Emma asked gently.

Under her hand Papyrus tensed, then relaxed as he let out a shuddering breath. “No Not Really, But If I Do Not Do This Nothing Will Change And I Am Tired Of Being In Pain.”

Emma dropped her arm into a slight bow gesturing towards the doors. “Then lead the way my towering friend,” she said with a smile.

Papyrus huffed as he walked forward, head held high as he passed through the sliding doors. He found himself smiling behind his scarf as he watched his friend straighten up with a flourish and follow after him. Trust Emma to play the fool just to try and distract him from his thoughts.

Axe grumbled under his breath as he walked into the reception area behind the other two. He watched as the pair approached the front desk and looked for someone to help them. Stars, he wished they were back at the house, where he could make sure that nothing could harm his family. There were just too many things out there that could hurt them, but Axe knew if he wanted his brother to get fixed then they had to do this.

Axe pulled the hood of his jacket up to hide the hole in his skull and shoved his hands into his pockets as he wandered over to join the others. When he got there he found them waiting for the bear receptionist to get off the phone.

Emma smiled at the stout skeleton as he walked over. At the same time, she took Pap’s hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. Though if she was being honest with herself, holding Papyrus’ hand was more to settle her own nerves then his. Emma may of had plenty of experience making medical appointments and stuff for her parents, but it didn’t mean she felt comfortable doing it. She started to mentally go over what she was going to say for the 100th time to make sure she wouldn’t forget anything, only for all the words to disappear when the bear monster looked up from his computer screen and smiled at the group.

“Sorry to keep you waiting. How may I help you?” Asked the dark brown humanoid bear as he put down the phone.

“Umm…” Emma looked hopefully at Pap to take the lead, but he seemed to be at a loss too.

Papyrus knew he should say something. After all, this was all for him, but his mouth just wouldn’t open.

Emma could feel her friend start to shake through their joined hands. She mentally bit back a groan, it looked like she was going to have to do the talking. “Um sorry, my friend here has an old injury to his jaw, that is causing him a lot of pain. We were hoping that there was someone available from the Clinic that could take a look at it for us?”

“That should be no problem, if I could have their name and Centre number I will get them booked right in.” The receptionist said hands poised over the keyboard.

“It’s Papyrus, but I’m afraid neither of my friends has been registered with the Centre. I can tell you what tribe he belongs to if it is any help.”

The bear monster blinked and looked at the group trying to maintain his professional demeanour. “They’re not registered? Are you sure?”

Emma nodded sadly, “yes we’re quite sure. Look I know it complicates things, but is there any way that someone can see him today? He’s in an awful lot of pain.” She pleaded.

As if to emphasise this point Papyrus let out a pitiful whimper as a dark stain developed on the front of his scarf.

“Oh my. Of course, I will phone through to the Clinic right away. If you head straight there I will make sure someone is available to meet you who can get this sorted out.” The receptionist said, picking up the phone.

“Thank you, how do you get to the Clinic from here?” Emma asked as she gave Papyrus’ hand a gentle squeeze.

“Through those double doors, then turn right and follow the signs, you can’t miss it.”

“Thanks,” said Emma with a grateful smile as she led the skeletons towards the doors the bear had indicated.

She looked up at her tall friend as they walked through the building. “Pap are you doing alright?”

Papyrus nodded, but the growing damp patch on his scarf said otherwise.

Axe sighed, “ya knocked that dam tooth again haven’t ya?”

Papyrus nodded miserably.

“And now it’s bleeding again. Told ya this would happen if ya didn’t let me fix it.” Axe growled in exasperation.

Emma shuddered trying not to remember the last time this had happened. “How about we just hurry along to the Clinic and get this sorted out?”

They continued on in silence for a while, until Emma’s curiosity got the better of her and she spoke again. “Um not to be rude, but I thought monsters were made of magic and dust?”

“Yeah, so?” Axe enquired, curiously looking over at the girl.

“So what exactly is Pap bleeding?”

Axe snorted, “mana of course.”

“Mana?”

“Liquid magic.”

“I thought magic was just a form of energy,” Emma said, still a little confused by it all.

“Don’t look at me kid, biology was never my thing. All I know is we have a liquid form of magic called mana running through our bodies, that evaporates when exposed to air. The more magic you have the longer it sticks around.” Axe said with a shrug.

“Oh, I guess that makes sense. Thanks for explaining it to me.”

Axe nodded then the group lapsed back into silence once more. Until they reached a pair of double doors with the word Clinic written above it. Upon entering the room beyond the doors they were greeted by an elegantly dressed deer monster in a doctor's coat. “Are you the medical emergency?”

“Yes.”

“Then please follow me and we’ll see what we can do.” The monster said gesturing for the group to follow them through the reception area.

Emma gave Papyrus’ hand another squeeze as the trio walked after the humanoid deer. As they were walking Axe instinctively placed himself in front of the other two. So he was between them and this unknown monster as they entered the healer’s examination room.

When everyone was in the room the deer monster turned to address the group. “Alright from what the receptionist said one of you has an old injury that has flared up?”

Axe grunted as he moved to lean against a wall, all the while glaring fiercely at the elegantly dressed monster. Papyrus shuffled forward so he was directly behind Emma then froze. He knew he needed to show them his teeth, but all he could think of was the mocking voices of the others, which paralysed him where he stood.

Emma sadly looked up at her friend; those other skeletons really had done a number on Papyrus’ self-confidence. Whatever anyone else said, as far as she was concerned the only thing wrong with the way Pap looked was that it caused him pain. She fought back a sigh, it looked like she was going to have to do something drastic to get her friend to relax. “Pap I know the phrase is human shield, but you have to admit that I’m barely a buckler on you. Now your brother would make an _Axe-cellent_ one.”

Papyrus groaned “Emma Please, It Is Bad Enough I Have To Put Up With Those Terrible Puns From Sans. I Will Not Put Up With Them From You Too.”

“Well, that leaves you with two choices then. You can either stand there and listen to me try and out pun your brother and fail abysmally. Or you can let this nice healer examine you and help you with your jaw.” Emma said menacingly.

Axe smirked as he watched his brother reluctantly move forward, lowering his scarf so the healer could get to work. He had to hand it to the kid, he would never have thought of using his brother’s hatred of puns to get him to cooperate like that. Not that he was happy with any of this, but it was nice having someone else looking out for Papyrus for a change.

Axe continued to glare as the healer started to examine Papyrus’ mouth. “Mmm, the damage to your teeth and jaw is quite severe. I’m afraid this goes beyond what simple healing can fix.”

“So you can’t help him?” Emma asked, resting a hand on her friend’s shoulder.

The deer monster turned to regard the small human. “No Miss, it merely means that he’ll need some corrective dental work as well.” Restoring a stray strand of hair back into their elegant updo, the healer returned their attention to the skeleton. “Now we weren’t expecting to do any dental work today, but it shouldn’t take too long to open up a room and prep it to go. Or we can book you in for one of our regular dental clinics if you prefer?”

Papyrus looked over at Emma who shrugged. “Don’t look at me Pap. This is your choice, I'm not going to make it for you.”

Papyrus closed his sockets and thought for a moment, before opening them and addressing the monster in front of them. “I Have Come This Far, It Would Be Foolish To Stop Now. So Please Book Me In For As Soon As Possible.”

“Alright, now the receptionist mentioned that you haven’t registered with us yet?”

“Sadly That Is True, My Brother and I Only Recently Learned That This Place Existed,” Papyrus said apologetically.

“Very well then, while I get a room ready I’ll give you the basic forms to fill out so we can start the registration process.” The healer said opening a draw in the desk behind them.

Axe let out a deep threatening growl as the healer reached into the draw. This seemed to freeze the monster in their tracks, but as Emma looked closer she spotted a faint bluish flickering light surrounding the poor creature.

Emma rolled her eyes heavenwards silently praying for strength. “Sans, please let go of them.”

All she got in reply was another low growl from Axe. Sighing, she looked over at the irate skeleton. “Sans I can see into the draw, there is nothing in there that could hurt your brother. Unless, Pap can you die from a paper cut?”

“No”

“See nothing to worry about. Now let the nice monster go so we can get Pap fixed. That is why we came here right?” Emma said sternly staring at Axe, “we can’t do that if you keep paralysing folks now can we?”

“Fine,” Axe grunted as he reluctantly released his grip on the deer monster.

Emma’s expression softened; she knew this was hard for him “thanks, Sans.” Then she turned her attention back to the healer. “Sorry about that, my friend hasn’t been on the surface long and still gets a little twitchy around strangers.” She said apologetically.

“That’s alright,” the healer said, slowly withdrawing their arm from the draw and handing a form to the taller skeleton.

Papyrus squinted at the paper in his hands for a minute before looking back at the healer. “I Am Sorry To Be A Bother But Do You Have This In A Larger Format? I Am Afraid My Eyesight Is Not What It Was.”

Seeing the confused and shocked look on the deer monster’s face. Emma sighed, “maybe I should explain. My friends are from the Horror tribe, so they have only had access to basic home remedies.”

“I see,” the healer said carefully, “well that explains a lot and gives us something more useful to do while waiting for the room.”

“Oh?”

“Instead of just filling out that form. I could take Mr… Errr?”

“Papyrus Serif,” Emma said, silently wishing someone else would take over being the adult. So she could go back to being quietly nervous.

“Right, I could take Mr Serif to the ophthalmology department and have one of my colleagues give him an eye exam?”

Emma gently squeezed Papyrus’ shoulder. “What do you say Pap, do you want to see about getting a pair of glasses while we’re here?”

“Oh, That Would Be Wonderful! Then I Will Finally Be Able To Read Your Mother’s Collection Of Cookbooks.” Papyrus said with a blissful smile spreading across his face, as he thought of all the delicious things he was going to make.

“Very well then if you will follow me I’ll take you to the ophthalmology department and hand you over to one of my colleagues.”

After that, it seemed to take no time at all before the trio found themself in another part of the Clinic, with someone leading Papyrus away to get his eyes examined. Leaving Axe and Emma waiting in another small repetition area.

Emma sank gratefully onto one of the plastic chairs in the waiting room, while Axe paced about like a caged animal. The skeleton ceased his restless pacing to regard the small human, who was calmly stowing something away in her bag. “What ya doing?”

“Just putting away those extra copies of that registration form the healer gave me since I take it you don’t feel like filling yours out now?” Axe grunted and went back to restlessly pacing.

Emma took out her sketchbook and started to amuse herself by trying to draw the monsters she had met this morning from memory. After a while, the sound of Axe’s heavy footsteps petered out. Looking up from her drawing Emma found the skeleton standing in the middle of the room with blank sockets. As she watched, one hand drifted up to his empty socket.

Emma put down her sketchbook and took a couple of paper bags out her satchel. Cautiously she approached the silent skeleton being careful not to startle him. “Sans, can you hear me?... Come on bonehead getting lost in your skull is not going to help anyone.”

Axe just continued to vacantly stare at nothing.

“Very well sir, you leave me no choice, but to try plan S,” Emma said opening up the paper bags and carefully waving them under his nasal cavity. She smiled in relief as Axe’s nostrils flared and his eye light flickered back to life. “There we go. Don’t scare me like that. The last thing we need right now is another medical emergency on our hands. Now come sit down and you can have these.”

Axe slowly blinked, shook his head and then eventually followed the girl back to the seats. Once he had settled down Emma passed him the bags before returning to her chair and picking up her sketchbook. “One of those bags should have beef jerky in it and the other one has some mint candies. I’ve also got some toffees if you prefer.” She said as she started to draw again.

“Nah, this will do fine,” Axe said, tossing a bit of jerky into his mouth.

“Okay.”

Axe chewed on the piece of meat trying to get his frazzled nerves back under control. His head was pounding and his empty socket had started to ache. Absently he raised a hand and tugged on the cavity, trying to relieve some of the pain.

“I’ve got some painkillers on me. You can have them if you want.” Emma said, putting down her pencil and looking over at the skeleton.

Axe sighed and let his hand fall back into his lap. “If it’s human stuff it won’t work on me.”

Emma quickly rummaged through her bag to see if she had anything that might help. “Mmm sorry looks like I’ve only got my normal aspirin and the snacks I picked up this morning.” Taking out a small notebook from her bag, she started to write while mumbling to herself. “Get painkillers for friends.”

The moment Emma had finished writing, Axe took the notebook from her and started to read. It took him a little while for him to decipher the girl's writing. This was not because her handwriting was bad or anything, but as Axe commented. “Your spelling is fucking awful. Pap wasn’t even this bad when he was learning. I can’t even make out the last thing on this to-do list of yours.”

“One Papyrus isn’t dyslexic and two it’s nose clip.”

“Why the fuck do you want to buy a nose clip?”

“I thought it might help Ember.”

“What?” Axe stared at the girl in disbelief. “Ya telling me, ya want to help the guy that tried to kill you?”

Emma raised an eyebrow, “well you tried to kill me when we first met and I’m letting you live with me. So why not help someone with a lot of the same problems as you?”

“Yeah well, what makes you think a clip will help him?” Axe enquired.

Emma shyly fiddled with the silver chain around her neck, a faint blush covering her cheeks. “Well, I thought if I got him something like a diver’s nose clip he would be able to cook again.”

“A diver’s clip, seriously? He’s a fire elemental he’s hardly going to go swimming. How’s that going to help him?”

“I thought that if it was strong enough to keep water out. Then it should be good enough to stop him from smelling anything when he’s cooking. And since it was the smell that triggered him, hopefully, this will help him out.”

Axe blinked and started to chuckle, the image of his old friend wearing a nose clip while cooking was just too funny.

“Alright, so it was a dumb idea,” Emma muttered, pouting slightly.

Still chuckling Axe shook his head. “Nah kid, it’s a good idea. It’s just the thought of Grills with a giant clothespeg on his nose _tickled my funny bone_.”

“You mean like this,” Emma said, pulling her sketchbook over and starting to draw.

Axe full-on laughed at the little cartoon that Emma drew of the dark elemental. “Yeah just like that. Hey, that’s pretty good, what else have you got in there?” He asked excitedly. He took the sketchbook and started flicking through it, his headache momentarily forgotten.

Emma mentally braced herself for the inevitable explosion that was about to happen next to her.

“What the fuck?”

 _Yep there it was_. Sighing she asked. “Which one is it? The stuff I drew after the attack or the cartoons I did of you?”

“The one of Pap dusting,” Axe growled. “Wait, you did some of me.” He glared at the girl for a moment before diving back into the sketchbook in search of the other drawings.

Sighing again Emma tiredly turned to the skeleton. “Before you destroy my sketchbook or me, just let me explain something.”

“Go on,” Axe growled, not bothering to look up from the book.

“As you may have noticed my dyslexia makes it really hard for me to write stuff down. So I tend to use my drawings as a way to remember stuff, also I tend to use them as a form of meditation to help me sort out how I feel about things.”

“Ya ain’t dyslexic, you're reading all the damn time.”

“I’m lucky, I’m not severely dyslexic, it mainly affects my short term memory and my spelling. Reading to myself for pleasure and trying to fill out something like a form are two totally different things.”

“How so?”

“Well, reading to myself it doesn’t matter if I miss a word or two. Also, it doesn’t matter if I end up rereading the same bit over and over again because I’ve forgotten where I was. But when I try to read, or fill out, something official my brain seizes up making me stumble over the simplest things. You want to know how bad it gets? Here’s my mum’s favourite example: One time when I had to write an essay for school I somehow managed to misspell the same word four different ways on the same page, not once getting it right and the word only had three letters in it.”

Axe looked over at the girl. “So are ya going to tell me what the word was or leave me guessing?”

“The,” Emma said, wincing slightly.

Axe continued to stare for a minute before he burst out laughing, “seriously?”

This was the moment Papyrus, wearing a brand new pair of glasses, walked in with the healer. “Do I Really Look That Bad?” He asked miserably.

“No Pap, you look awesome. Axe was just laughing at one of my many misadventures in spelling.” Emma reassured her tall friend.

It took Axe a couple of seconds to reign in his laughter, before he too reassured his brother that his new gold wire-rimmed glasses really did look good. Then the group found themself being led to yet another part of the Clinic and asked to wait, while the deer monster went and checked on the progress of the room.

When Emma set her bag down it gave out a small growl.

“Emma, Are My Ears Deceiving Me Or Did Your Bag Just Growl At Us?” Papyrus asked curiously, staring at the old cloth satchel.

“Pap, you don’t have ears,” Emma said dryly.

“Emma.”

“Sorry Pap, Growler here must have been getting fed up with being cooped up in my bag.” Emma said with a laugh, as she pulled out a rather handsome teddy bear from her bag.

Papyrus took the bear and examined it closely. He had soft golden fur with chocolate brown glass eyes and black button nose. Around his neck was a dark green ribbon that was done up into a big bow at the front and when Papyrus gently squeezed him, he growled softly.

“For some reason, he reminds me of Axe,” Emma commented slyly looking over at the stout skeleton, who was still flicking through her sketchbook.

“I Can See That, But Why Did You Bring Him?” Papyrus enquired giving the bear another squeeze.

“Well, I thought you might like something to hold if they decided to work on your teeth today. So I put Growler in my bag last night. I also packed an eye mask and my mp3 player to help distract you from what they’re doing if you want.” Emma said, self-consciously fiddling with the chain around her neck.

“Thank You Emma That Was Very Considerate Of You, But I Think I Shall Be Alright With Just Growler.” Papyrus said, gently picking up his small friend and hugging her to his chest.

Axe looked up at the pair and smirked. “Hey Pap, why don’t you just take the littlun in with ya. After all, she is your favourite cuddly of the moment.”

“Aww Pap, it sounds like someone is getting jealous down there.” Teased Emma.

“Mmm, I Think You Are Right Dear Friend, But Fear Not, For I Know The Solution To This Problem.” Papyrus declared, swooping forward and gleefully scooping up his brother into his embrace as well.

Axe wiggled for a bit before giving in to his fate, there was no getting out of a Papyrus hug once you were caught. Papyrus smiled contentedly holding the pair close, drinking in the warmth from their bodies. He could feel them relaxing into his embrace and found himself starting to relax as well. It had been a stressful morning so far and it was nice to take a breather like this, before having to dive back in.

Sadly the hug was cut short by the return of the deer monster, with word that they were ready for Papyrus. Giving the pair one final squeeze, he reluctantly released them and followed after the healer, holding Growler close to his chest.

Axe anxiously watched his brother as he was led away. Part of him desperately wanted to follow after them to make sure Papyrus was alright, but the logical part of his brain knew he would just be in the way.

The longer Axe stood there the harder it was to listen to logic. Every instinct in his body was telling him to go in there, take his brother and destroy all who dared to touch him, to hurt him. No that wasn’t right, they were helping Papyrus not hurting him, this wasn’t the underground, but the more time passed the harder it was to remember that.

Meanwhile, as Axe was slowly losing the battle against his instincts, Emma’s nerves were getting the better of her. Her mind kept playing a terrible procession of all the things that could go wrong and her current reading book was not doing much to distract her.  
She really wanted her sketchbook back, there was nothing like trying to draw something from memory to help distract Emma from her thoughts. Sadly, Axe still had the sketchbook clutched tightly to his chest.

Emma closed her Kindle with a sigh and looked over at Axe, mentally debating if asking for her sketchbook back was a good idea or not. As she watched, his eye light shrank to barely a pinprick and his perpetual smile took on a fierce and menacing demeanour. Slowly without thinking Emma stood up and walked over to the skeleton. Without saying a word she wrapped her arms around him and buried her head into his jacket.

Axe blinked and looked down at the small thing that was clinging to him desperately. He could feel the tension in her little frame as he tried to gather his scattered thoughts back into some sort of order. As he was doing this Emma started to speak softly, her voice slightly muffled by the jacket. “I guess I’m not the only one who can’t stand waiting. He’s going to be alright and if he isn’t I’ll hold your coat while you dust the lot of them.”

Axe breathed deeply, then started to chuckle. “Ya know, Paps would be so disappointed if he heard ya say that.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right … I just don’t think I could take losing someone else I cared for,” Emma whispered before she pulled away and gave herself a little shake. “Come on, why don’t we sit down and you can berate me about those silly cartoons I did.”

Axe regarded the small human in front of him, although there was a teasing smile on her face, her eyes held an old sorrow that tugged at his soul. He found he didn’t like seeing Emma hurting like this, it reminded Axe too much of himself, smiling and telling everyone he was fine while dying on the inside. He had spent too many years doing that and he was not about to let this tiny thing who had come into their lives make the same mistake.

Axe gently picked Emma up and walked over to the seating area, settling down on one of the plastic chairs with her on his lap. “Nah, gotta better idea. Why don’t you sit there and explain why you thought it was a good idea to draw me in lederhosen?”

“One word, Pinocchio.”

“Pinocchio?”

“Ya know ‘ _I’ve got no strings on me_ ’ ” Emma giggled as she retrieved her sketchbook from the skeleton and pointed out another cartoon of Axe strung up like a marionette.

“Are ya ever going to let me live that down?” Axe groaned, burying his skull into Emma’s shoulder.

“Probably not, just consider it revenge for knocking me out two days in a row.”

“First, Dust was the one that knocked ya out that first time and second… sorry ya didn’t deserve what I did to ya,” Axe muttered. Raising one clawed phalange hesitantly he ran it along the scar on Emma’s cheek. “From the very beginning, you have done nothing but help us and what do I do to thank ya? I-I hur…”

“Shh… It’s alright. What damage that was done got healed and I think my wind chimes more than makes us even. So stop beating yourself up over this, or do I have to set my attack cat on you too?” Emma joked softly as she gently petted the back of his skull.

“Fine,” Axe chuckled weakly, lowering his hand and hugging Emma closer as her soft caresses and sweet floral scent lulled him to sleep.

Emma contentedly hummed to herself as she listened to the skeleton’s grumbly snores coming from behind her. After a short while, she carefully lowered her hand and went back to drawing, making sure not to disturb her sleeping companion.

And that’s how the pair remained until the sound of approaching footsteps had Axe’s sockets snapping open as he prepared to attack the intruder.

“Remind me never to wake you up from a nap,” Emma remarked dryly patting Axe’s arm. “Now could you please let me go and get rid of those bone attacks before the good healer here has a soul attack.”

Axe blinked, shaking the last bit of sleep from his mind and surveyed the scene in front of him. He was standing with Emma clutched to his chest like some sorta oversized rag doll. She had a rather resigned look on her face as she gazed up at him. A short distance away from the pair was the deer monster, who was nervously staring at a dozen sharpened bones hanging in the air in front of them.

As for Papyrus, he was standing a little further away from the others blinking owlishly, while one hand gingerly explored his jaw. “Brother I Can Not Feel My Face.”

“I’m sure you’re gonna feel it later,” Emma said, wiggling in Axe’s grip until he let her go. “Now leave your face alone so I can see that handsome smile of yours.”

Axe dispelled the bones and walked over to the pair. A smile spread across his face as he looked at his brother’s now straightened teeth. Papyrus smiled vaguely at his companions, still slightly under the influence of the anaesthetic used on him earlier. His smile had lost some of its former innocence, although it was still very sweet, there was a predatory edge to it now that the braces could not hide.

Emma felt a light tap on her shoulder as she admired her friend’s new pearly whites. She fought the urge to flinch away from the touch and turned to face the healer.

The monster held out a paper pharmacy bag in one hand and an appointment card in the other. After handing her the items the healer then proceeded to give Emma detailed instructions on how to maintain Papyrus’ braces. This included what he could eat and what he should avoid. Emma’s head was spinning from all the information that was being thrown at her, there was no way she was going to remember all of this. Luckily she spotted Axe off to the side furiously writing down everything the healer was saying, so she didn’t have to worry. Finally, the deer monster finished by telling Emma that they had made arrangements with the Centre’s assessment team for the boys’ initial meeting in three weeks time.

After the healer finished speaking they escorted the group back to the clinic’s main reception area. Before they departed the deer monster reminded the skeletons to bring the completed forms with them when they came for their next appointment.

Once Axe was sure the healer was gone he turned to Emma. “Ya gonna be alright if I take Pap straight home?”

“Yeah, I should be fine. Do you want me to pick anything up on the way home?”

“Nah,” Axe chuckled, flicking the rim of Emma’s hat over her eyes.

In the short time it took Emma to straighten her hat the skeleton brothers had disappeared. Fondly shaking her head at Axe’s antics she slowly meandered her way out of the building. Emma was in a mild panic by the time she made it outside as she realised that somehow during the morning she had lost her little notebook. This left her desperately trying to remember exactly what she had set out to do today.

An all too familiar chuckle brought Emma out of her thoughts. There leaning against a nearby wall was Axe holding the notebook in one clawed hand. “Let’s see, get Pap fixed, check. Now what’s next…” Axe looked up from the book with an amused smirk on his face. “Em, you do know that phone is spelt with a P, not an F don’t you?”

“Evidently not. Axe did ya leave your brother to the tender mercies of my cat, just so you could tease me about my spelling?”

“Heh, perhaps. And don’t worry about Pap, Dust will make sure he’s alright. Now come on, the next thing on ya list is either get a new phone or you’ve really misspelt something.”

Emma sighed dramatically as she fell into step with the stout skeleton. “This is about those cartoons isn’t it?”

“I don’t know what you’re _flowering_ about,” Axe stopped and squinted down at the little human. “But if you ever think about really using my head as a flower pot, I ain’t gonna be responsible for my actions.”

Emma raised an eyebrow as she regarded the skeleton. “Would you have preferred if I went with my original plan and used that beautiful pristine white skull of yours as a canvas to vent my frustrations on?”

“You wouldn’t dare,” Axe growled as he stared incredulously at the girl.

“Yeah, you’re probably right, no one has ever got me mad enough to do it. Now come on those errands won’t do themselves.” Emma huffed as she walked off.

Axe grinned and shrugged as he fell into step with her and the pair soon made quick work of the errands on the list. All the while Axe carried on making bad puns and teasing comments about Emma’s unique spelling skills, which she countered with some dry comebacks and cheeky comments of her own. Until they came to the last thing on the list, which had Emma hesitantly looking at the door to Grillby’s, trying to work up the courage to go in and hand over the things she had brought for the fiery brothers.

Axe watched Emma nervously fiddle with a plastic bag that held the T-shirt she had borrowed as well as a newly purchased nose clip. He sighed in frustration. “What’s the holdup? Just go in there and give them the stuff so we can go home already.”

“Sorry you’re right, it’s just...maybe this was a mistake,” Emma mumbled, anxiously looking up at the skeleton.

“What, you want to keep that top?”

“No.”

“Then what?”

“It’s the nose clip.”

Axe raised a bone ridge in query and crossed his arms. “Ah-hu.”

“I just don’t want to insult anyone. How do you even bring something like that up?”

“Just open ya mouth and talk.”

“Alright, here goes nothing” Emma murmured, taking a hesitant step towards the bar, before freezing once again as she tried to think what she should say.

“That’s not going in ya know,” Axe grunted.

“I know,” Emma whined. “It’s just … I’m not you, I can’t just walk there and say ‘Hey here’s that top I borrowed, thanks again for letting me use it. Oh, by the way, I got your brother a nose clip so he doesn't try to cook anyone else.’ I don’t think it will go over so well.” She added miserably.

“Arr come on kid that was perfect. Ya know Grills if he’s anything like mine…”

“But I don’t know him,” Emma whispered fiercely.

“What? Ain’t ya a regular here?” Axe huffed.

“Yes, but that doesn't mean I’ve talked to the guy much or anything.”

Axe continued to regard her with crossed arms and a raised ridge.

Emma sighed and hugged the top to her chest. “Look I’m not like you and Papyrus. You guys walk into a room and you’re the life of the party. You can talk and interact with anyone you want. Me, I enter a room full of people and all I want to do is hide. Do ya know it took me over a year to learn that the bar was named after him? When he was healing me last week was the most I’ve ever talked to the guy.”

Axe stared in shock at Emma, in all the time he had known her, he had never seen her look so small and vulnerable. The little thing he had come to know gave as good as she got, returning his terrible jokes and puns with teasing remarks of her own. Stars even this morning the kid had stepped up and taken care of everything, but looking at her now Axe was painfully reminded about how fragile her soul truly was.

Axe sighed and gently drew Emma against his chest, wrapping her in his embrace. “I don’t think I’m that person any more, but I think I know a way to help ya out.”

“Mm?”

Axe pulled back a bit and held out the notebook. “Do that drawing again, ya know that one of Grills and I’ll write a note ta go with it. That old flame brain will take it from me. Then the only thing you will have ta tell them is that your housemate put something in there for him.”

Emma hesitantly took the notebook. “Do you really think that would be alright?”

“Yeah Kid.”

“Okay, thanks Sans,” Emma smiled gratefully as she quickly redid the cartoon of the gaunt elemental and handed the book to the skeleton. Axe just as quickly wrote something down and tore the sheet off the pad. Looking over at Emma he asked, “so what’s the name Grills is going by now again?”

“Ember.”

“Right,” Axe muttered, folding the paper he wrote the name on it before handing back to the girl.

Emma placed the note in with the nose clip, then with one more hesitant smile for Axe she headed into the bar. Five minutes later she emerged from the building blushing furiously. Without thinking Emma let out a loud grown and buried her head into a skeleton’s chest.

“You alright down there?” Axe enquired, patting her back.

“Yeah, just give me a second” Emma murmured. Taking a couple of deep breaths she backed up a bit and looked up with a sheepish smile, still blushing faintly. “Sorry about that, one of the bar flys started hitting on me and I’ve never really been good at handling that sorta thing.”

“Which one?” Axe growled, not liking the idea of one them stupid skeletons messing with his little human.

“I’ll show you when we get home.”

“Fine,” Axe huffed.

Finally having gotten her blushing under control Emma started to walk off. Only to shriek as she was grabbed from behind and pulled tightly against Axe’s chest. The next thing she knew the world was speeding by as Axe carried her bridal style, while he cackled maniacally. From somewhere behind them came the sound of profuse swearing, then something whizzed passed them.

Axe spun around on his heels, flipped whoever was pursuing them a middle finger and fell backwards into the void taking Emma with him.

Emma had the breath knocked out of her as Axe flopped down on his bed still cackling to himself. “Axe you maniac, what was that?” She asked breathlessly, trying to untangle herself from the skeleton.

Still chuckling Axe sat up and gently placed Emma down next to him. “Sorry little snack, saw Red coming out of the bar and didn’t feel like sharing ya.”

“Red? Is he someone from your tribe?” Emma asked curiously, looking up from making sure she hadn’t lost anything in their mad dash.

“Nah, he’s one of ya bar flys.”

“Right,” Emma said, getting up and stretching before heading for the door.

“Where are you going?” Axe enquired also standing up.

“To put my stuff away, why?”

“Don’t you remember, ya said when we got home ya would show me which of those stupid skeletons upset ya?”

Emma tiredly rubbed her face. “He didn’t exactly upset me, but … I never know how to cope when people do things like that, it just…”

“Makes you uncomfortable and that’s enough of a reason for me to have some extra fun with them.” Axe chuckled darkly.

Emma raised an eyebrow and stared at the madly grinning skeleton.

“What?”

“Do we need to have the talk on not breaking your toys again?” Emma remarked dryly.

“Nah.”

“You’re not going to leave me alone until I show you, are you?”

Axe just grinned wickedly in response.

“Alright, follow me,” Emma said with a resigned sigh as she opened the door.

“Huh?”

“I don’t have any drawings of him in my current sketchbook so we need to look in one of my older ones,” Emma said as she headed towards the craft room.

Axe followed the girl down the corridor. He remembered her pointing out the room to them when she had shown them around the house. He’d had no reason to go in before this, so was quite curious to find out what was actually in there.

Emma smiled softly, running a finger over the old wooden plaque on the door, that declared this room the owl’s nest. The craft room had gotten that nickname when she was a lot younger and this had been solely her mother’s domain. Her hand hesitated for a moment on the door handle as her chest ached with the sad knowledge that she would never share another lazy afternoon with her mother, just enjoying each other’s company as they worked on various things.

Axe watched silently as Emma tensed up for a second before sighing sadly as she opened the door and walked into the room. He wandered in after her, eye lights draw in a hundred different directions at once. The wall on the right-hand side was completely dedicated to storage with shelves filled with various boxes, rolls of fabric and other odds and ends. A happy smirk spread across his skull as he noticed that the bottom shelf had been turned into an awesome napping spot, with plenty of soft pillows and blankets. Any wall space not used for storage was covered with a variety of artworks in a range of media and styles. His smile fell into a frown as he turned to see a mountain of paperwork spread over the workbench that ran the length of the left wall.

Unconsciously his hand reached out towards the nearest document to see what it was, but was stopped midway by Emma’s voice piping up from one of the bookcases that flanked the window. “Here we go, this one should have what we are looking for.”

Quickly Axe threw his hand upwards looking for something on the corkboard above the bench to hide the fact he had been about to snoop. Among the old newspaper articles, sticky notes and artwork one thing really caught his eye light.

“Who’s this?” He asked, pointing to a photo of a handsome young man in some sort of uniform.

Emma looked over at the photograph. It was an old school picture of a boy with dark auburn hair, bright happy eyes and a quiet smile. “Oh, that’s Justin, my big brother. He died a couple of years ago.”

“Oh,” Axe murmured awkwardly, rubbing his arm. “So, ya found an image of my new favourite toy?”

“Yeah,” Emma said softly, gladly accepting the change of subject, as she settled down among the pillows and blankets of her little nest. Axe sat down next to her, instantly recognising the skeleton on the page in front of him. The monster had the same rounded skull as Dust and Axe, though perhaps a little bit sharper, but that was where the similarities ended. His toothy smile was cocky, with sharp shark-like teeth and one gold canine. Then there were his eye lights which were a deep crimson that seemed to stare back at you. Emma hadn’t bothered to go into much detail on the guy’s clothes all you could make out was some fur and something dark behind it.

Axe started to chuckle. “Well, well, well it looks like Red is up ta his old perverted tricks again.”

“Red? That guy that chased after us at the bar?”

“Yep.”

“Hmm,” Emma looked down at the image, absently running a finger over it. “He always seems to dress in bad boy chic.”

“Yeah so?”

“Wanna turn him into a pretty princess?” Emma asked, standing up and pulling out one of the boxes from above her.

Axe collapsed in laughter when Emma opened it to reveal a cornucopia of silk flowers in every shape and colour imaginable. Then as he was trying to regain control of himself, she reduced him to a wheezing mess, by adding glitter glue, a rainbow of permanent markers and the girliest stickers he had ever seen into the mix.

By the time he had finally managed to stop laughing Emma was once again sitting next to him with a fresh sketch of Red in front of her. “So do you want to discuss ideas for her ladyship’s makeup or do you want to go free form on your next supply run?”

Axe chuckled and grinned evilly, “let’s see what ya got.”

With an equally evil grin, Emma laughed, pulled some colour pencils out and started to draw. Axe moved closer so he could see better and help plan Red’s new look. They continued until Emma’s stomach announced that it was way past time for lunch. Axe sniggered quietly at the look of betrayal on her face as she glared down at her middle.

“Damn it, why are you always so loud? I was having fun,” Emma muttered, still glaring at her stomach.

“Aww, don’t be so hard on it. Your stomach is almost as good as Papyrus for remaining us to eat. Now come on, Pap would skin both of us if he thought that we were deliberately skipping a meal.” Axe said, standing up and stretching.

“So that’s why you’re all bones?” Emma chuckled following the skeleton downstairs. “Pap caught you skipping and here I thought you were born that way.”

“Damn, you found out my secret,” Axe joked as the pair wandered into the kitchen and started putting a meal together.

As the pair worked, Emma noticed a plate in the sink which reminded her of something. “Hey Sans, do you think we should make something for Pap to have when he wakes up?”

Axe looked up from what he was doing with a thoughtful expression on his face. “Mmm, probably a good idea considering how long it is until dinner.”

“Okay,” she murmured reaching for a plate.

Quickly Axe reached around Emma snatching the plate first while muttering gruffly. “Leave it Snack, I’ll deal with my bro. You concentrate on getting ya own.”

Emma nodded and turned back to getting her own lunch. Axe quickly made a sandwich and poured a glass of water, then took them upstairs to his brother. Finding him still sleeping off the anaesthetic, he quietly put the food on the nightstand and left the room.

Upon returning to the kitchen Axe found Emma sitting at the table reading a book with two plates of food in front of her. He settled on the chair next to her letting out a contented sigh as he spotted that instead of a glass of water she had given him a bottle of ketchup.

“Thanks kiddo,” he said happily, taking a big swig of the ketchup.

“You’re welcome, figured you deserved a treat after everything that happened this morning and Pap’s not here to complain. Oh, speaking of Pap how is he doing? She asked looking up from her book.

“Still sleeping cuddled up with that bear you gave him.”

“That’s good, I’m glad he’s getting some proper rest for once, but I guess that leaves us fending for ourselves for dinner tonight.”

“Heh, don’t worry about it, Pap will happily do it when he wakes up. Ya know how much he loves cooking.” Axe said nonchalantly, taking a bite out of his sandwich.

“Yeah, I know, I just want to give Papyrus a break, he’s been through a lot today. So I was going to offer to cook tonight.”

“Arr kid, ya don’t have ta do that.”

“I know, but I feel like we should be celebrating and since I can’t afford to get the family favourite of a take-away this is the best I can do.” Emma said with a rueful smile.

“Celebrating?” Axe asked, raising a boney ridge.

“Yes, celebrating.”

“Why?”

“Well, we’ve finally got Papyrus to see a healer and we’ve also taken the first step in getting you guys your I.D’s. I think that’s worth celebrating, don’t you?”

Axe smiled softly at the girl. “Yeah kid, it does. So do you have anything in mind?”

“Well, I was looking through Mum’s cookbook,” said Emma, tapping the old leather book in front of her, “and I think I’ve found something everyone should like.”

“Yeah what’s that,” Axe asked, pulling the little red book towards him.

“Macaroni pie,” Emma said pointing to one of the handwritten recipes.

“Macaroni pie? Never heard of it,” Axe murmured reading the recipe.

“It’s one of my Mum’s creations. It’s a bit like lasagna, but the meat and pasta are mixed together and you used the cheese sauce as a lid.”

“Sounds good.”

“Yeah, I figured it was a better use of the beef mince then something like spaghetti bolognese, considering how green everyone else gets when I mention the stuff.”

“Definitely,” Axe confirmed, fighting down the bile and unwanted memories that were trying to rise.

“It’s also something I can make now and just finish off in the oven nearer dinner time. So fancy giving it a go?” Emma asked as she ate the last of her lunch.

“Yeah,” Axe said, quickly finishing his own food, he then grabbed the empty plates and took them over to the sink.

“Cool,” Emma murmured as she double-checked what she would need for the recipe and then set about preparing it.

Once Axe had done the little bit of washing up there was, he helped Emma with the cooking. After they had put the macaroni pie in the oven and cleared up after themselves the pair went their separate ways. Emma returned to the craft room, while Axe wandered off to check in with Dust.

He found the skeleton down in the basement fiddling with some old distilling equipment they had found. “How’s it going?”

“This stuff is ancient but it should do what I want.” Dust replied, barely looking over at Axe before returning his attention to what he was doing.

“How long before ya have something we can use?” Axe asked, moving closer.

“A couple of days, if I’m left alone.”

“Fine,” Axe grunted, turning to go.

“You know it would be a lot easier to kill the others than to keep playing these silly games with them.” Dust called after the retreating skeleton.

“Perhaps, but ya gotta agree Em was right, this is a lot more satisfying and fun.” Axe chuckled, turning once more to face Dust with an evil grin.

“Yeah,” Dust said with an equally evil grin.

Still chuckling Axe turned and headed for the stairs only to stop again when Dust called out. “Hey, since when has that human been anything other than a snack to you?”

“Since I did what my bro wanted me to and gave the kid a chance. Might want to try it yourself, she's quite fun once ya get to know her.” Axe called over his shoulder as he disappeared back upstairs shutting the door on Dust’s reply.

Upon entering the kitchen he did a quick scan of the room, just to make sure nothing had been missed when they had been cleaning up earlier. As he was doing this Axe’s lone eye light fell on the little cookbook Emma had been using earlier. Out of curiosity, he picked it up and started to flick through it, idly wondering what other treats might be hiding between the covers.

The book had an odd mix of things in it. Everything from how to roast various types of meat, to how to convert gas mark to celsius, plus a whole load of recipes with some very interesting names. As he was reading Axe noticed something else interesting about the book that brought a smile to his face. Though the book had belonged to her mother it was clearly written for Emma. It had simple and easy to follow instructions with helpful tips that made it perfect for someone with dyslexia.

Closing the book and placing it back on the kitchen counter. Axe idly wondered about the women who had written it but soon brushed it off as he drifted back upstairs. Not wanting to disturb his brother, Axe soon found himself back in the craft room quietly watching Emma as she listlessly shifted through the papers on the workbench in front of her.

“Want some help with that?” He asked walking over.

“Thanks for the offer Sans, but I don’t want to burden you with my problems when you have got so much on your own plate.” Emma mumbled looking up at the skeleton with a weak smile.

Axe regarded the girl for a moment as an idea formed in his head. “Arr, come on snack ya know I like a full plate,” he chuckled as he patted his stomach. “But if ya feel like ya need ta do something for me in return, how about we make a deal?”

“Like what?” Emma asked cautiously.

“I’ll help ya with whatever written stuff ya got and ya make me something from that cookbook of yours.”

“This wouldn’t be a way to con more welsh cakes out of me, would it?”

“Heh, maybe,” it was actually another recipe, with a rather interesting name, that had caught his eye, but Emma didn’t need to know that yet. This way he could have a little fun and help her at the same time.

Emma looked at the various pieces of paper on the bench and fought back a sigh. She could really use the help, but it felt wrong to take advantage of Axe’s kindness when there was so little she could do in return. The deal felt terribly one-sided considering how hard it was for her to write anything, and what words she did get down needed a cryptographer to decipher. It made her feel like she was trying everyone’s patience with how much she had to rely on others for help.

Emma pulled herself out of her negative thoughts to find Axe still standing there with a small half-smile on his face. “Well?” He asked.

“Alright. I just hope you know what you’re letting yourself in for.” Emma sighed, as she pulled out one of the office chairs by the workbench and sat down.

“Can’t be much worse than ya spelling” Axe teased, taking the other chair and picking up the nearest document.

A little while later Papyrus joined them only to be banished to the other side of the room along with Emma, so Axe could organise things in peace. Emma settled on the floor near the open box of silk flowers and started working on a floral crown for Red. Papyrus sat down next to her happily chatting away as she worked.

The tall skeleton fondly regarded his brother as he sifted and sorted through the various papers in front of him. It was so nice to see Axe invested in something other than survival. There had been a time underground when Papyrus had feared he would lose his brother to either hunger or madness and the sad thing was he didn’t know which one of those was preferable. Papyrus mentally shook himself, that was then, here and now on the surface he could see traces of the skeleton he once knew. He was not some romantic fool that believed that everything would be the same as before, it couldn’t be after what they had lived through. He absentmindedly ran a phalange over his new braces, no not the same, but perhaps with their friend’s help, it could be better. Maybe even Dust would be able to put his past behind him and heal. Only time would tell and thanks to Emma that was something they had plenty of.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe it's been over a year since I started this story. I just want to say thanks for joining me on this journey and putting up with how slow updates are.

**Author's Note:**

> I have written more, but I need it checked by my editor (my big brother!) so updates will be as quick as I can do them. I've written 3 chapters and I'm working on chapter 4, but it takes time.


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